


Orphan Brigade: High School Years

by Kellisina



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Fake AH Crew, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2018-09-19 06:10:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 78
Words: 38,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9421997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kellisina/pseuds/Kellisina
Summary: Geoffs boys are growing up fast. They're attending High School, meeting girls and participating in epic heists. The standard teenage experience.A series of drabbles originally posted on tumblr.





	1. Go! High School Edition

“Go!” would always be Michael’s favourite game. Once a week, Geoff would give them all a task to complete and the first person to achieve the task would win a sticker. When you earned enough stickers, you would be rewarded. The tradition continued even when the boys reached high school. The tasks would range from something tame like the first to score five points in a video game to tasks which contributed to their criminal education.

Their most recent challenge? First person to steal an orange car. 

Michael bolted out of the apartment and jumped onto his motorbike, laughing as   
he spotted Gavin riding away on his BMX. 

It wasn’t long before Michael spotted a car that he could use parked in front of what appeared to be a disused garage. Grinning to himself, Michael parked his bike and pulled out a lock picking kit from inside his leather jacket. Michael knelt down at the side of the car, so absorbed in his work that he didn’t hear the approaching footsteps until it was too late. 

“And what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” A sharp voice demanded, casting an intimidating shadow over the boy. 

Michael’s tools fell to the ground with a clatter as he spun around, reaching for   
the gun which he had concealed in his jacket. He relaxed as he realised that it   
was not only a girl stood before him, but a girl he recognised. 

“Don’t I know you…?” He asked, quickly concealing his weapon.

“Yeah. You do. We have English together. But that doesn’t explain why you’re trying to break into my car.” 

Michael instantly recognised the girl as being Lindsay, the queen of witty comebacks at their school. He had always found her incredibly funny. He doubted that she would see the humour in this situation though. “…This is your car?” 

“No shit. What the fuck man?” 

“Sorry. I, er, I need it for a bet.”

“A bet?” Lindsay repeated, arching an eyebrow. 

“Yeah! I just need to borrow it for an hour max! Then I’ll bring it right back, I   
swear.” 

“A-ha…” Lindsay frowned, not at all convinced. “And what do you get if you win this bet?” 

“Fame and glory.” Michael recited automatically, echoing Geoff’s words. 

“That’s it?” 

“… And a pizza party.” Michael admitted reluctantly. 

Lindsay pondered over the situation for a moment before throwing the keys   
towards Michael. “Okay. But you had better bring it back or I will hunt you down. And you owe me a pizza for the trouble.” 

Knowing better than to question the offer, Michael grinned as he climbed into the car. “It’s a date.”


	2. Let's Heist

Geoff and Jack were seasoned professionals when it came to heists. They knew everything worth knowing about their business. So when the boys were old enough, their surrogate parents taught them all about the fine art of heisting.   
Geoff figured that the best way for the boys to learn was by having them participate in heists themselves. But he wanted to have fun with it. So instead of planning a series of successful heists for them to undertake, Geoff instead instructed them each to plan a heist of their own. It was partially a test to see how well the boys could manage such a huge task. But mostly, he just wanted to see what the teens could come up with. 

Figuring that the fairest way to decide who went first would be to draw the names out of a hat. Geoff fathered the family together and dramatically pulled the first name from Jack’s elf hat, bracing himself when he realised that Gavin was up first. 

As expected, Gavin’s plan didn’t make a great deal of sense. Geoff almost gave up on the idea when he saw that Gavin had taken a selfie at every location he had planned to visit during the heist. He was going to have to do a lot of work to ensure that no-one could follow their trail. 

Gavin’s downfall was definitely choosing the ‘style of substance’ route. He was determined that if they were going to heist, then they would look as cool as possible while doing so. This meant fire engines, code names and a shopping trip which started a tradition of the boys spending more money on preparation than what they could possibly earn from the heist. Geoff almost put a stop to Gavin’s heist, knowing that it was doomed to fail. But his boys seemed to be enjoying themselves and Geoff decided that ultimately, that was more important. As anticipated, Gavin’s heist was a chaotic mess and Gavin’s petrol station remained un-robbed. 

Unlike Gavin, Ryan’s cardinal sin of heisting was being too ambitious. Not content with just one hit, Ryan had planned to steal an armoured truck and then rob a continence store. The attack on the truck backfired spectacularly, but they were able to rob the convenience store on their way home, earning just enough to cover the costs of their new masks. 

As Geoff had expected, Michael was the one to take the challenge the most seriously and became fiercely competitive about the affair. Geoff had to admit that he was impressed by Michael’s use of contacts. He had somehow managed to convince an ex-military contact to provide them with two tanks and apparently a girl from their school had helped him to acquire the boats. Despite the impressive nature of the careful planning, Geoff decided that Michaels downfall was sucking all of the fun out of the heist. Michael hadn’t bothered with masks or code names and had gotten surprisingly annoyed when Ryan and Ray made a pit-stop to get matching outfits. Unfortunately, the bank which Michael had planned to rob had been closed so once again they settled on just robbing a convenience store on the way home. 

Ray had been the most nervous about starting the heists and had needed to get high before he left the apartment each time just to calm his nerves. However, he was surprisingly calm about his own heist, Geoff watched curiously as Ray strode out into the streets for “Operation Waffle-o” completely drug-less. In another surprising turn of events, Rays’ fatal downfall seemed to be extravagance. The crew all dressed in white tuxedos and rode around the city in a limo. They may not have gotten the armoured truck onto the train, but at least they looked good doing it while they tried. 

Their final heist was supposed to be organised by Geoff, but as their valiant leader had been picked up by the cops and sent to jail for his misdeeds, Jack had to improvise. She drew from all of their previous heists, just to prove to the boys that their ideas weren’t completely useless. They had masks, code-names, tanks and limos. And after sending Geoff a cake with a key to his cell door in it (which no-one could believe really worked, but they decided not to question it), they collected Geoff, got the limo onto the train and jumped off the bridge into their getaway boat. This was easy enough in theory, until Gavin forgot to pull his parachute and ended up breaking his arm. 

As proud as he was of all his boys planning, Geoff decided that he and Jack would be in charge of the heists from now on.


	3. Team Crazy Mad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings: Blood, Violence, Guns

As usual, Gavin’s mouth had gotten him in trouble again. Michael wasn’t sure if it was cultural differences, the boys’ social unawareness or if he was just deliberately rude. Either way, more often than not Gavin would say the wrong thing and offend someone much bigger and stronger than him. Luckily, Michael was always there to protect him. 

Which was why Michael was so upset when he saw Gavin lying in his bed, unconscious and bloody. With their criminal activity it was too risky to take Gavin to a hospital, so they were waiting for one of Geoff’s contacts to come and check him out. In the meantime, Jack was attending to the wounds as best she could.

Michael watched quietly, blaming himself. He hadn’t walked home with Gavin that day. Instead he had gone with Lindsay to check out some of the cars that she was working on. So when Gavin and Ray had bumped into a rival gang, Gavin had naturally said the wrong thing and Ray had been unable to diffuse the situation. Without any weapons, the boys had been helpless. Gavin had suffered the brunt of it but Ray had been beaten as well, with a black eye and bruises all down his arm where he had been shoved into a wall. Michael soon decided that since hadn’t been there to protect his boys, then he would make up for it retrospectively. It was clear that Gavin wouldn’t wake any time soon, so Michael stormed out of the room and into his own bedroom to fetch his guns. 

Being careful not to wake Ray who was sleeping on the couch in the living room, Michael headed to the door only to be blocked by Ryan who stood there   
expectantly, dressed in his heist gear, with his black skull mask on.

“It’s about time.” Ryan nodded. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Michael frowned. 

“Well we’re going to get payback. Right?” Ryan commented, opening his jacket to show Michael his hidden arsenal. 

“… Team Crazy Mad it is.” Michael grinned, leading the way out of the door with Ryan following behind him.


	4. Lindsay Heists

“You can’t just bring your girlfriend on a heist Michael.” Geoff shook his head chastisingly. “This isn’t a prime dating opportunity.” 

Michael scowled. “I’m not an idiot Geoff. I know it’s not a date.” 

“So why do you want to bring her then?” Ray questioned. 

“Because we need another getaway driver, right?” Michael explained in an agitated tone. “So instead of you spending ages trying to find someone that we won’t be able to trust anyway, we can just use Lindsay. She’s a fucking good driver. She beats me in drag races every time. You need a driver, she needs the money. It’s perfect.” 

“He makes a convincing argument.” Jack admitted.

Geoff sighed. “You trust her?” 

“Absolutely.” Michael nodded his head firmly, a determined look in his eyes. 

“Then I guess we have our driver. But no flirting over the radio, I swear to god.” Geoff huffed. 

Michael rolled his eyes and walked away. As agitated as he looked, he was incredibly excited to tell Lindsay the good news and called her as soon as he got into his room, away from prying eyes.


	5. Lindsay And Gavin Learn To Get Along

Gavin wasn’t jealous. So what if Michael never spent time with him anymore? So what if Michael was too busy with his new girlfriend Lindsay? So what if he was suddenly insanely lonely at school? 

…Okay, so he was jealous. Gavin was used to being rejected by Ray. The two were as close as brothers, but Ray was naturally incredibly antisocial. So Gavin understood when Ray would sneak off at school to play his DS (against the school rules but no-one was going to keep him from his games) but Michael had always been by his side at school. But now he was too distracted by the pretty red head and would follow her around like a love sick puppy. He was glad that Michael was happy, but he still missed his brother. 

Lindsay couldn’t stand Gavin. She found him to be an irritatingly offensive goof ball and was constantly amazed that he was able to function as a member of a criminal gang. But Michael loved him. That much was clear. He may say disparaging things about the Brit but they were all said with a warm, friendly tone which suggested that Michael didn’t mean any of it. 

Lindsay figured that if she was going to be a good girlfriend then she would have to get along with Michaels family. From what she could tell from heisting with them, Michaels adopted dads and … whatever relation Ryan was, all seemed nice enough. Ray ignored her at school, but he seemed to ignore everyone so she wasn’t too offended. But Gavin was going to take a lot of work. 

Lindsay decided to take matters into her own hands and invited Gavin to her place for drinks after class one day.

“Look.” She started, speech already prepared. “I don’t like you and you don’t like me-”

“You don’t like me?” Gavin protested with a pout. 

“… I didn’t hear any protest to the ‘you hating me’ part.” 

“… Touché. Carry on.” 

“Point is, neither of us like each other and that’s fine. But we do both like Michael and that’s what counts. Right?”

“Right…” Gavin agreed thoughtfully.

“So we’re going to have to pretend to get along for his sake. Think you can do that?” 

“I guess… Jesus! How many cats do you have?” He blurted out as another cat appeared and made itself home on his lap.

“I have three.” Lindsay told him defensively. “Mimi, Melchoir and Mr Mistoffelees.” 

“So you’re a crazy cat lady.” Gavin informed her with a confident nod. 

“Shut up.” Lindsay scowled, throwing a pillow at Gavin’s face. Not hard enough to do any damage, just a warning shot.

Gavin could see why Michael liked her so much and decided to do his best to get along with the cat lady for the sake of his boy.


	6. Grave Consequences

Geoff as the get-way driver was never a good idea. He had a tendency to panic and make incredibly awful split second decisions when put under pressure. For example: driving through a cemetery in order to evade the cops.   
Ryan clung to his seat for dear life as the car was knocked from one side to another. He watched with a baffled expression as Gavin undid his seat belt and leant out of the open window.

“Sorry for disturbing you!” He managed to yell before Michael grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back into the pseudo-safety of the car. 

“If you fall out and die we could just leave you here.” Michael commented as he closed the window to ensure that that wouldn’t happen.

Ryan noticed that Gavin was oddly quiet for the rest of the evening. Instead of celebrating a successful job like the others, he sat away from the celebrations, drinking a single beer with an oddly thoughtful expression on his face. 

Soon the crew all went to bed, but Ryan often had trouble sleeping so more often than not his nights would be spent sat on the couch reading in silence. So when   
Gavin snuck out of his room around one in the morning and escaped out of the apartment, Ryan was ready to follow him. Curious to see where the teen was headed, Ryan stayed a safe distance away so that Gavin wouldn’t be able to spot him. 

After following the Brit for almost twenty minutes, Ryan found himself back at the cemetery which they had crashed through during their daring escape. He watched from the shadows as Gavin did his best to repair a broken tombstone with what appeared to be super glue.

“Sorry about this Love.” He mumbled as he tidied the earth which had been scattered by their tires and collected flowers to cover any misshapen patches.

Eventually, Ryan’s curiosity got the better of him. “What are you doing?” Gavin jolted, squeaking as he turned around. He instantly relaxed when he saw that it was just Ryan.

“Bloody hell Ry! You nearly gave me a heart attack. “He shook his head. “What does it look like I’m doing ya dope? I’m fixing up the graves that Geoff trampled with the AHmobile. 

"But why..?” 

“Well…” Gavin gestured to the gravestone. “She could be someone’s mother, sister, wife. Anything. And I just got to thinking… If something bad happened to one of us and then someone wrecked the grave I would be super pissed. And I don’t want her family to feel like that because of us…” 

Ryan was speechless for a moment, surprised by Gavin’s sudden sentimental nature.

“And besides, if she comes back as a zombie I don’t want her to come and try to eat us because we fucked with her final resting place.” Gavin added in a conspiratory tone, a deadly serious look on his face.

Ryan chuckled, glad to see that Gavin was just as goofy as ever. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you from any vengeful zombies.” He assured the teen. “Now come on. Let’s go home.”


	7. Jeremy's Adoption

The boys made numerous contacts during their high school years. There was Lindsay, the car thief extraordinaire. Mica; the fashion goddess with a surprising flair for violence. Kerry; the head of the anime society who had proven himself to be surprisingly resourceful. And Matt who’s loyalty to the crew was pretty remarkable. But no-one stuck quite like Jeremy did. 

One of the things that the lads liked best about the teen was that (as far as they could tell) he didn’t seem to have a family who cared for him. He was an orphan. Which made him the perfect candidate for their crew. 

They started his recruitment slowly. Gavin would wait outside Jeremy’s gymnastics practise, ready to catch him on his way out so that he could invite the boy to spend time with the lads. Jeremy always said yes which led Gavin to suspect that he was lonely. Gavin therefore doubled his efforts to include the boy.

Jeremy took the groups illegal activities surprisingly well and was incredibly eager to learn. Ryan taught him everything there was to know about weapons and it wasn’t long before Jeremy was ready to participate in their missions. In the beginning, he would only cover when Ray was ill or busy with other activities, but   
Jeremy soon became a member in his own right. And after only a few months of working together, Geoff offered to let Jeremy live with them permanently. Jeremy almost teared up when Gavin proudly announced that he was now officially a part of their mismatched family.


	8. Lindsay The Psychologist

Lindsay was always true to her word, and in an attempt to get to know Michaels family better, she endeavoured to spend more time with his two brothers. This meant eating with them during their lunch breaks, hanging out after school and the all-important heists. 

The most startling thing which Lindsay noticed during her time with the Fake AH Crew was that the boys were incredibly dependant on each other.

Lindsay was convinced that if Ray didn’t have Michael and Gavin he would be totally content with avoiding any and all social interactions. His brothers drew his attention away from his games and made him feel more comfortable about talking to others. She suspected that if it wasn’t for Michael, Ray wouldn’t even spare her a second glance. 

Gavin seemed utterly dependant on the attention and approval that he received from his brothers, particularly Michael. It seemed like a joke wasn’t worth saying if Michael hadn’t thought it was funny. 

And then there was Michael, whose occasional bouts of rage could easily be avoided by the distractions which his brothers provided. 

Lindsay wasn’t sure how the boys managed to function without each other and in any other family this would be perceived as a rather dysfunctional mechanic. But for them it just seemed to work. She didn’t know the full story, but she knew that all three of the boys had troublesome childhoods and hadn’t had a real family until Geoff took them in. So Lindsay decided not to mention it to them. The co-dependency may seem problematic to outsiders, but she knew that at this point in their lives it was exactly what the lads needed.


	9. #No Homo ... Or Hetero

Ray couldn’t understand it.

The lads were suddenly at the age where all they could think about was the opposite sex. Well… Michael and Gavin were. Ray just couldn’t comprehend it. 

Sure, the girls in their class were pretty. But that was it as far as Ray was concerned. He didn’t want to touch them and he certainly didn’t want them to touch him. 

In an attempt to fit in, Ray would join in whenever his brothers talked about girls. Laughing and smiling along, when really… he was just utterly confused. Was he missing something? 

Eventually, the feeling that something in him was missing or broken became overwhelming. Ray gave up and sought out Ryan. Jack and Geoff gave great advice when the situation called for it. But they we’re exactly discreet. If he confined in Geoff, there was no doubt that Jack would know all the details within half an hour and vice versa. But Ryan could always be counted on for   
confidentiality. 

Ray found Ryan alone on the balcony of the apartment. He slid the door shut behind him, dropped down next to Ryan and quickly explained the situation to him. 

“So I’m broken, right?” He concluded bluntly. “I mean, there’s gotta be something wrong with me.” 

“Of course there isn’t.” Ryan stated plainly. 

“…No?” Ray blinked, stunned by the response. 

“Nope. I’m the same. I think I could have those sorts of feelings if I got to know someone well enough, and trusted them. But that hasn’t happened yet.” Ryan shrugged casually. “It’s not something I worry about though. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, then there’s no big loss.” 

“… So I’m good?” 

“Of course you are.” Ryan smiled surprisingly warmly. “Everyone is different. Try not to measure yourself against them.” 

“That’s easier said than done.” Ray pouted.

Ryan laughed. “I’ll get you some pamphlets. Its more common than you’d think.” 

“Really? You’re not fucking with me.” 

“Cross my heart.” Ryan promised his little brother.


	10. Michaels Serenade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Guns

Whenever Michael’s parents would yell and scream at each other, the toddler would always hide himself away and cover his ears with headphones, drowning out the noise with his music. Music had always been Michaels escape. It gave him a distraction, something that he could focus on when things got bad. And when Michael didn’t have any music, he would simply make his own. 

Gavin was the only one to ever notice this quirk. He and Michael had been trapped behind their broken down car mid-way through a heist. Just the two of them, with one gun each, against what seemed to be an entire Los Santos police department. 

While Gavin was desperately trying to call Geoff for back up, Michael was singing  
in a low, shaking voice. “Hey now…. You’re a rock star…” 

Gavin quickly wrapped up his conversation and watched Michael sing to himself as the bullets whipped through the air. It was the first time that Gavin had ever felt the need to protect Michael and he was determined to do a god job of it. So  
Gavin did what he did best; he played the fool. He sang along in an obnoxiously cheery tone, grinning brightly when Michael looked up at him with a bewildered expression. 

By the time back up arrived, Gavin and Michael were stood on top of their broken down car, yelling as they fired. “Hey now! You’re an Allstar! Get your game on! Go play!” 

Ryan shot a warning flare to disperse the remaining cops as Michael and Gavin concluded their song, one arm around each other, laughing happily. “All that glitters is gold! Only shooting stars break the mold!”


	11. The Ghost Rider

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings: Guns, Fire

Ray was feeling down, Ryan could tell just by looking at him. There didn’t seem to be any reason for him to be upset but sometimes Ray didn’t need a reason. Normally Ray would hide himself away and play video games until he felt better, but today he didn’t have that option. As soon as the teenagers had finished school for the day, they had been called downtown for their latest heist. 

Ray had been positioned high up on a roof, sniper rifle in hand. Ryan watched him for a moment, trying to figure out some way to brighten his day. He smiled under his mask when he spotted a nearby gas canister. “Hey Ray!” He called over their radio system. “Ray, look.” Ryan promptly set himself on fire. "Ray. Ray? Ray, look. I’m the Ghost Rider!” 

“What…..the hell?” Ray questioned as he watched Ryan walk around, his skull mask glowing from the flames. “How are you not fucking toast right now??”

“Flame proof clothing.” Ryan explained vaguely.

Ray looked through the scope of his rifle to get a better view of the bizarre sight. As he chuckled, a firm hand landed on his shoulder. Ray jumped and accidently pulled the trigger. His face went pale as he jumped up turning around to face  
Gavin. “…I’m fucked.” He announced. “We should start planning my funeral.” 

***

Ryan woke up back at Geoff’s penthouse, lying on the sofa with a fierce pain in his left shoulder. 

“Oh, hey, Ryan’s waking up.” He heard. Ryan assumed it was Ray speaking but it was difficult to tell with the ringing in his ears. “Dude, do you think he’s gonna be pissed i accidentally shot him during the heist?” Ryan slowly got to his feet, glaring at Ray and Gavin who stood in front of him. “Whoa, wait, Ryan, I’m gonna need you to start channelling waffle-o.” Ray pleaded. “C’mon, happy waffle-o thoughts—”

Ryan took a few slow steps forward before draping his arms over the two boys and pulling them in for a hug. Gavin squeaked in surprise while Ray simply froze in place. 

“Um…” Ray started awkwardly. 

“I’m taking away your sniper rifle. For a month.” He stated with the authority of a parent.

“That’s fair.” Ray conceded. “Sorry about your arm.” 

“It’s fine.” Ryan assured him.

“This is why we don’t DICK AROUND WITH FIRE DURING A HEIST.” Geoff called from the kitchen, whisky in hand.

“Sorry Geoff.” The boys all called back in unison.


	12. Late Night Shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Guns

Jeremy lived alone. He had been legally emancipated at a young age and had quickly learned how to look after himself. He lived in a small, run down flat in the city. It wasn’t much, but it still cost a lot to maintain. So whenever he wasn’t at high school, Jeremy would be working. 

In what little free time Jeremy had, he would draw and sell his designs and commissions for much less than they were actually worth. During the evenings he would work the night shift at a convenience store. It wasn’t a great job, but at least it was quiet. When there were no customers, Jeremy would sit by the cash register and work on his art or whatever homework was due in the next day. He survived the exhaustion with a constant stream of energy drinks to keep him conscious. But the exhaustion still showed. Heavy bags lay under his eyes, exposing the fact that he often got little to no sleep during the week. 

One night, Jeremy looked up to find a man in a dark skull mask stood in one of the aisles, checking out the selection of snack food. 

Jeremy stared blankly at the man. Trying to figure out if he was real, or some kind of sleep deprived illusion. Maybe it was Halloween? Jeremy looked at the calendar next to his till. Nope. He glanced back up at the man. It wasn’t worth questioning. Best to just leave him be and hope that there wasn’t any trouble. 

Moments after that thought, an explosion blew the store doors off, sending them crashing through the aisles.

“Go, go, go!” A voiced yelled as figured dashed forwards through the debris. 

Before Jeremy had the chance to react, a gun was being held to his forehead. 

“Give me everything you have in the tills.” A distinctly British voice commanded.

“…. You have to be fucking kidding me.” Jeremy sighed, irritated. “This is the tiniest, shittiest convenience store you could find. There is literally twenty bucks in the register right now. It probably cost you more for the explosives you needed to blow the door off. Which is over kill by the way. If you’d just walked in here with the damn gun, it would have exactly the same effect. This isn’t exactly a high security establishment.” Jeremy knew that he shouldn’t be arguing with the man who had a gun to his head, but he couldn’t help it. He was tired, irritable, and ready for a fight. He looked directly across at the man, a scowl fixed on his face. “… Gavin??” He scowl dropped, replaced by a look of sheer surprise.

The man with the skull mask walked forwards. “Well this isn’t going great. How the hell do you know Gavin?”

“….Were in the same biology class.” Jeremy explained. “…. And that’s Michael guarding the door. We have English together.”

“Jonathan!” Gavin beamed, lowering his gun.

“…..Jeremy.” He corrected.

“Jeremy!” Gavin called, just as enthusiastically. “What are you doing here Mate?” 

“Working. Obviously. What are you doing?” 

“The same.” Gavin smiled. “I just have a cooler job.”

Jeremy sighed, shaking his head. He pulled open the cash register and took what little change had been left in it. “Here. Just take it.”

“But-…” Gavin hesitated, not wanting to steal from someone he recognised.

Ryan snapped to attention as the sound of police sirens could be heard in the distance. He grabbed the money from Jeremy’s hand and yanked Gavin towards the exit. “Time to go.”

“See. I told you the explosions were overkill. Police wouldn’t have been alerted otherwise. This place is not fancy enough for a panic button.”

“Bye Jeremy!” Gavin yelled as he was dragged out of the building and into their get-away car.

“See you I guess…” Jeremy replied quietly.

\--

Jeremy wasn’t quite sure why he hadn’t ratted out the thieves. He had recognised two out of three of them, so it wouldn’t have been hard for the police to find them. He had even opened his mouth to give out the names of Michael and Gavin when he had been questioned. But it just felt… wrong.

They were teenagers, like him. Just trying to do their jobs, like him.

And who was he to judge if those jobs weren’t quite legal.

Jeremy sighed as he reached his locker, struggling to stay awake. As he pulled open the locker, he was faced with two thing; the biggest can of energy drink he had ever seen, topped with a bright purple bow, and a card.

Hesitantly, Jeremy opened the card, quickly catching the twenty dollar note that fell out from it.

“What the….?” He muttered to himself. 

“Sorry we robbed your store.” The note read, in hastily scribbled hand writing. “See you around! The Fake AH Crew.” 

Jeremy sighed to himself. “This can’t be good.” He snatched the energy drink from his locker, already drinking from it as he headed to class.


	13. Breakfast Club

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Contains: Drugs

Jeremy tried his best to stay out of trouble. He spent all of his time either at gymnastics practise (a sports scholarship was his only hopes of affording college) or working. Basically, he simply didn’t have the time for detention.

So, for the most part, he stayed out of trouble. But sometimes misunderstandings happened and trouble found him.

Which is how he found himself back at his high school on a Saturday morning to complete his detention time.

As he entered the school grounds (on foot since couldn’t afford transportation), he spotted a few other kids being dropped off.

One girl with dark blonde hair jumped out of her mother’s car, clearly not listening to a word that the woman was trying to say to her. The teen wore a Wonder Woman dress and was carrying a back pack shaped like a cat. Jeremy had no doubt that she was an eccentric person and should probably be avoided if he wanted to complete his detention time in peace.

He spotted another girl being dropped off by her father. Jeremy watched as she exited the top-of-the-line sports car, her purple hair seemed to shimmer in the morning sunlight. She wore fashionable clothes and looked like a model.

‘Okay. So maybe detention won’t be too bad.’ Jeremy thought to himself.

But then another car pulled up, a big black vehicle with obnoxiously loud music blasting through the windows. Jeremy sighed as he spotted Michael and Gavin (his classmates who had recently tried to rob the store he worked at) jumping out of the car.

‘Scratch that.’ Jeremy thought. ‘This will definitely be trouble.’

A man with a thick handle bar moustache leaned out of the car to shout at the pair. “It’s time for you to learn a valuable lesson boys; next time don’t get caught!”

Gavin turned to wave goodbye as the man drove away but Michael ignored him and made a beeline to Wonder-Woman.

“Jezza!” Gavin beamed as he spotted Jeremy at the entrance.

“….Jeremy.” He corrected.

“Same thing.” Gavin shrugged as they entered the school, heading towards the library.

The teens all sat at the tables of the library, waiting for the teacher to show up. Gavin was promptly forced out of his seat by Michael, so that Michael could sit next to Lindsay. Gavin pouted, but used to opportunity to sit closer to Meg. Jeremy watched this exchange from the back where he had strategically sat to avoid any further trouble.

It wasn’t long before Mr Burns, the schools science teacher, walked in. He made a big speech about how they were all delinquents who needed to learn respect and then assigned them a thousand word essay entitled “Who you think you are.” After assigning their task, he left to the adjacent library office.

No-one started to write. They all looked around for any distraction possible.

“Who I am…” Gavin muttered to himself. Jeremy noticed that the British teen would quite often thinks aloud. “Who I am.” He picked up two pens, putting them into his mouth. “I’m a walrus.” Gavin laughed, turning around to show Jeremy, who struggled not to laugh.

The pens dropped from Gavins mouth as he spotted Michael getting up and heading to the door. “Micoo. We’re not supposed to be doing any monkey business!” He stated, mimicking their teachers words.

Michael turned with a stern but joking expression on his face. “Young man, have you finished your paper?” He smirked, as he pulled the door shut. “Help me keep this closed.”

Gavin scrambled up, taking screw out of the door and helping Michael to barricade them in.

“What on earth do you think you’re doing?” Meg questioned.

“Well we can’t have any fun with Mr Hardass checking in on us every five minutes.” Michael smirked, pulling a small package out of his jacket. “In the words of our dear brother: Just Blaze!”

It wasn’t long before all the teens were a little high and playing games like ‘million dollars but…’. They eventually got around to explaining why they had gotten detention in the first place.

“Yeah. I don’t even know how it got there, but a fuckin’ flare gun exploded in my locker.” Jeremy explained with a sigh.

Gavin doubled over, trying to hide his laughter. “My bad.” He managed to say between the giggles.

“That was you?!” Jeremy explained, jumping to his feet and grabbing Gavin by his t-shirt. “Do you know how much trouble you got me in?! They could take away my scholarship for shit like that!”

“Hey!” Michael quickly pushed Jeremy away, defending his brother. “Listen. I don’t want to fight you.”

“Why not?” Jeremy glared.

“Because I’d kill you.” Michael sneered. “And then your parents would sue me. And I don’t want the bother.”

“Well, jokes on you Buddy. I have no parents.”

“..You don’t.” Lindsay questioned.

Jeremy shrugged. “I used to. But they were shitty people.” He explained, rolling up the sleeves of his Letterman to show them a number of cigarette burns on the inside of his arm. “So when they went to jail, I proved that I could live on my own and got emancipated.”

“That must be lonely…” Gavin mused.

“I guess.” Jeremy sighed, sitting back down.

***

Things calmed down after that. The teens found out that they had a lot in common.

“You know, it’s funny.” Michael chuckled. “We got all types here. Gavin’s the brain. I’m the cool, bad boy.” He paused to wink at Lindsay. “Jeremy’s….. uh. Jeremy’s…”

“What do you mean? I’m clearly a jock.” Jeremy protested.

“… You are?”

“Well, yeah!” He gestured to the Letterman he was wearing.

“What team you on again?” Michael questioned.

“The gymnastics team!”

“Yeah….. That doesn’t count.” Michael explained apologetically. “It’s not a cool sport, ergo, not a jock.”

“What am I?” Meg enquired curiously.

“A princess.” Gavin answered, quickly blushing and looking away when he realised what he had said.

Lindsay arched an eyebrow. “And me?”

“A fucking lunatic.” Michael laughed in a way which suggested that he was only teasing.

***

Mr Burns eventually figured out how to get back into the library. The teens threw their hastily written essays to him and quickly escaped.

“Hey Geoff….” Gavin started as they climbed into the AH-mobile, his eyes fixed on Jeremy who was walking away. “Any chance we can adopt a new brother?”


	14. The Lads Prom

Prom was going to be a nightmare, Geoff just knew it. For whatever reason, he wasn’t excited like he had been the first time Ryan had gotten a date. He was just nervous.

The boys came out of their rooms all dressed in flawless (and incredibly expensive- nothing but the best for Geoff’s boys) tuxedos.

“I feel like a fuckin’ penguin.” Michael complained as Jack endeavoured to fix the teens’ unruly hair.

“I think mine might be too tight.” Jeremy commented, stretching his arms.

“That’s because we had to get yours from the kids section Buddy.” Geoff joked.

Jack moved to stand in front of Ray, holding out his hand expectantly.

“What?” Ray blinked, feigning innocence.

“You know what.” Jack retorted with the hint of a glare.

Ray sighed heavily before passing Jack the DS he had concealed in his jacket.

“And the rest.”

Ray pouted as he handed over his back up DS and an old GameBoy Colour.

Geoff forced himself to smile as he poured all of the lads a drink. “You boys have fun tonight. Don’t do anything stupid. Call us if you need backup.”

“What would we need back up to a school dance for?” Gavin questioned.

“I don’t know. In case you fucks blow it up or something. Just call us.”

“You got it Geoffie.” Michael swallowed his drink, slamming the glass back down onto the table. “Gotta go. Our lovely ladies aren’t going to wait forever.” He stated, heading to the door followed by his brothers.

“Bye…” Geoff waved meekly as the door was shut behind them.

“They’ll be fine.” Jack assured him, already pouring Geoff another drink.

“Of course they will.” Geoff replied, not really believing it.

It wasn’t long before Geoff’s phone vibrated and he received a picture pf his boys with their dates. He recognised Lindsay instantly, having done a few heists with the budding car thief in the past. To her left was a beautiful girl with bright purple hair, which explained the purple flower which Gavin wore on his jacket. Jeremy looked very proud with his date, his arm comfortably around the brunettes shoulder. Geoff was surprised to find that even Ray had a date, he would definitely be questioning that one later.

It was a lovely moment which was promptly ruined when Gavin sent him a barrage of selfies as the night went on. Geoff merely rolled his eyes and saved the group picture of the lads and their dates, determined to have it printed and displayed proudly on their fridge.


	15. The Heiress of Los Santos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Kidnapping

The Fake AH Crew rarely kidnapped. Especially not actual kids. They’d seen first hand the devastating effects that it could have and didn’t want to put any children through that trauma, regardless of how much the parents deserved it. 

But sometimes, it was the only way to get what they needed. Which is how they ended up with the Heiress of the Burton Mafia in their penthouse. 

Ryan had brought her in and they handcuffed her to prevent any escape attempts. Normally they would tie any captives to a chair and use a lot more precautions. But this was a teenage girl. She didn’t seem like much of a threat and they didn’t want to hurt her. They just needed to keep an eye on her for the next few hours. 

“This won’t work.” The girl rolled her eyes. “Father isn’t going to notice I’m gone until someone point it out to him. And even then, he’ll only come after you if his pride gets hurt.” 

Geoff paused, taking a good look at the girl. “Hey. What’s your name kid?” 

“Mica.” She replied, meeting his gaze with a defiant expression. 

“Mica.” Geoff nodded. “Your old man really won’t care?”

“I’m afraid not. So if you’re looking for money, you kidnapped the wrong sibling.”

“Why’s that?” Jack asked, sitting opposite the girl.

Mica shrugged. “He didn’t like when I came out the closet. Said it shamed the family etc etc. The mafia can be pretty strict about their traditions…” 

Before the adults could respond, the door opened and the three lads, accompanied by their new friend Jeremy, entered. 

“I thought I told you guys to stay out for the afternoon.” Geoff sighed, burying his face in his palm. 

“We wanted to show Jezza the penthouse.” Gavin explained quickly.

“….What the hell is going on?!” Jeremy questioned when he spotted the teenage girl sat on the couch, her hands bound by handcuffs.

“Don’t worry about it.” Ryan stated dismissively, his black skull mask hiding any hints of his expression. 

“…. Why is nothing ever normal with you guys.”

“Life is just more interesting that way.” Gavin beamed in response. “Geoff! I’m starved, can we order pizza?”

Geoff sighed. “I guess so.”

“Order me a pepperoni.” Mica quipped from her seat on the sofa.

***

Mica hadn’t been joking when she said her father wouldn’t notice her disappearance. They’d ordered pizza, eaten together and now the teens were all watching a movie together since Jeremy had mentioned that he’s never seen Ferris Buller’s Day Off. Jack had even taken the handcuffs off Mica when it became clear that she was quite content hanging out with the four boys. 

“I ran a background check on her earlier.” Ryan mentioned quietly, sipping his diet coke. “She has quite the criminal resume. She might come in handy if we can get her on our side.”

“I don’t think that will be too difficult.” Jack replied, smiling as she watched the teens laughing and joking together.


	16. Goldilocks And The Three Bros

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Bullying. Violence.

Jeremy was spending his break time sat at the library, working on his science homework. But, as usual, his peace was disturbed by a certain cheery Brit who appeared from behind him and sat on top of the desk Jeremy had been working at.

“Hey, Jeremy.” Gavin started, kicking his feet idly. “Have you met the new kid?”

Jeremy looked up from the homework. “What new kid?” Jeremy asked, closing his notebook. With Gavin around he had no hopes of getting any work done.

“The tiny blonde. She was in my history class this morning. There’s all kinds of gossip about her right now.” Gavin explained dramatically. “Oh!” Gavin pointed to the entry of the library where a small girl with long golden hair walked in.

Jeremy watched everyone’s heads turn as she entered. Their expressions were a strange array of fear, disgust and other emotions that Jeremy couldn’t quite identify. He couldn’t work out why there was such a fierce reaction to the teen, until she turned her head to reach for a book from the shelves. The right side of her face was totally scarred. The scars seemed to start at her ear and spread out over her cheek.

“Huh…” Jeremy muttered under his breath, not quite sure how to react to the sight.

“Her name is Macey.” Gavin informed him. “Apparently she doesn’t talk to anyone. I guess she’s shy?”

“I guess…” Jeremy watched as a trio jocks made their way over to where the girl was stood. He bit his lip anxiously. The jocks weren’t exactly well known for their compassion. He couldn’t quite hear the conversation, but he could tell that it wasn’t going well. When a rough hand clamped on Macey’s shoulder, Jeremy jumped up without hesitation and dashed over. Gavin had a similar reaction; he was slightly faster than Gavin and ended up over there first.

“What’s happening fellas?” Gavin asked almost playfully, casually stepping between Kurt and Macey.

“Well Brit. My girl Heather tried to be nice this morning, extend a hand of friendship to the little freak here. But Blondie totally blanked her. So, we’re going to teach her a lesson about manners.”

Gavin hummed. “No. I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Another jock, Jason, grabbed at Gavins shirt. “You’re not getting in our way.”

Jeremy stepped forwards to intervene, but he paused when he realised Michael was stood behind Jasons shoulder. It was almost as if he had been summoned by the threat to Gavin.

“Hey boi!” Gavin beamed brightly.

“Hey boi.” Michael replied, arms folded over his chest. “We fightin?”

“Yup!”

“Good.” Michael smirked menacingly before spinning around to punch Kurt, knocking him out in one hit.

Gavin wormed his way out of Jasons grip and Jeremy dashed forwards to knock the jock over before he could do any more harm.

The final jock, Darren, scowled furiously and pulled his arm back to punch Michael, who was looking the other way. Before Jeremy had to warn him, Macey spun around, kicking Darren in the face despite the fact that he was almost double her size. Darren fell to the ground with a thud and the lads were left staring at the blonde.

Macey brought her hand up, lightly touching her lips before bringing it back down.

“…Did she just blow us a kiss?” Gavin gasped.

“…Are you a fucking idiot?” Michael sighed. “She’s Deaf you dumbass.”

“Ah.”  Gavin responded. “Anyone know sign language or something?”

“I got it.” Jeremy grabbed his notebook from the desk he had been working at, and scribbled a hastily written sign. “ _You okay?”_

Macy smiled, nodding her head. Her hair bounced up and down, brushing against the scars. She took the book from Jeremy’s hands and wrote a reply. Her handwriting was much neater than Jeremy’s, soft and swirling. “ _Thank you_.” She wrote. “I didn’t realise they were being rude.” She showed them her reply, wrinkling her nose.

“They’re ass holes.” Michael informed her. “They try to pick fights with people they know can’t fight back. But you were pretty sweet back there.”

“Yeah!” Gavin beamed excitedly. “You kicked Darren so hard thought his jaw was going to fall off!” He laughed.

Macey watched carefully as the boys spoke, looking at the patterns their lips made so that she could follow to conversation. “ _Thank you.”_ She wrote in response. _“I’m a black belt.”_

The bell signalling that it was time for their next class rang. At the same time, a watch strapped to Maceys wrist buzzed and flashed green.

“We have to go.” Jeremy informed her. “But here.” He wrote down his number and tore the page out of his notebook to give to her. “I’m Jeremy. And this Michael and Gavin. If you have any more problems just call me, okay? And we’ll help you out.”

The girl beamed, moving forwards to hug each of the boys in turn. She waved goodbye before she headed to her class. Michael burst into laughter as she subtly kicked one of the fallen jocks while passing.

“I like her.” Michael announced through his laughter.

“Yeah…” Jeremy smiled. “Me too.”


	17. Mmm Watcha Say

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Triiger Warning: Guns, Violence, Blood

The Fake AH Crew were spread all over the town, spilt up by the requirements of their heist. Gavin and Ryan had been placed together, with Ray high up on the rooftops to cover them. 

It had been a long, hard heist. But it was finally over. 

Gavin was hidden in an alleyway, taking cover while he waited for the police to disappear. His ragged breaths turned to small puffs of fog in the cold night air. Suddenly, a stream of fizzy liquid hit his head. Gavin looked up to find Ray on the rooftop a few stories above him, stood up and pouring the liquid out of a can.

“Gah!” Gavin yelled over the intercom system. “Ray?! What are you doing?”

Ray smirked from his vantage point. “Pouring one out for the ho-”

His words were cut off as a bullet shot through the air, piercing Ray’s shoulder. 

“Ray?” Gavin called, too far down to see what had happened. 

The can dropped, plummeting down and hitting Gavin’s head. 

“Ow!” Gavin exclaimed, rubbing his head. He looked up to find that Ray had fallen forwards, off of the building. “RAY!”

Ryan was near enough to spot the figure falling from the rooftop and sprinted towards Gavin. In what could only be described as a miracle, he caught Ray before he hit the ground. The impact of the catch sent him, Ray and Gavin crashing to the pavement. 

“We have to go.” Ryan snapped, scooping up Ray as he stood. A steady stream of blood staining both of their clothes.

“We-… I… Micoo!” Gavin called desperately over the intercom. “We need a ride.”

“Kinda busy!” Michael yelled back, the sound of sirens in the distance.

“I think Ray got shot!!” Gavin explained frantically. “He fell of the building and there’s a lot of blood!”

“On my way to you.” Michael replied instantly. 

It only took three minutes for Michael to arrive. He was driving an ambulance, siren wailing, and was followed by about ten police cars. 

The ambulance screeched to a halt. “Get in!” Michael practically screamed.

Ryan pulled the back of the ambulance open, ushering Gavin in before climbing in with Ray, slamming the door shut behind him.

As Michael sped away, Gavin stared at the EMT who was sat in the back with them. The man was shaking with fear and avoiding any eye contact. 

“Who the fuck is this?” Ryan complained when he spotted the man.

“You said Ray was shot, so I got you a fucking medic!” Michael called back, swerving to avoid the police barricade. “You’re fucking welcome!” 

Ryans’ glare could be felt through his mask. “I hope you’re good kid.” He stated as he lay Ray down on the medical trolley. 

Ryan carefully removed Ray’s mask and was surprised to find that the boys eyes were open. Given how quiet he had been, Ryan had assumed that Ray had been unconscious.

“How you doing?” He asked tentatively.

“In a shit ton of pain.” Ray grimaced. “Thanks for asking.” 

“Is he going to be okay?” Gavin asked, slumping against the shaking walls of the ambulance.

“Maybe. If the EMT does his DAMN JOB.” It was obvious that Ryan was tense, he very rarely raised his voice. 

“….Me?” The shaking man asked for clarification. 

“Yes. You. Get up.” Ryan placed a hand on the mans shoulder, yanking him to his feet. “What’s your name?”

“Caleb…”

“Well Caleb, my buddy here just got hurt real bad. And I’m going to need you to patch him up for me. Can you do that?”

“I… um, I guess.”

“You guess?”

“I will!” The man yelped, quickly turning to Ray to give him the medical attention he needed.

Ryan sighed and turned to face Gavin, who looks as if he was about to faint. His eyes widened under the mask when he spotted the slow trickle of blood that had started to run down from Gavin’s hairline. 

“What hit you?!” 

“Soda can I think?” Gavin winced. 

Ryan sighed and grabbed a handful of bandages to attend to Gavin. “The cut doesn’t look too deep, but I think you might have a concussion.”

Gavin giggled. “This is just like surgeon simulator. Right Boi?… Boi? Micoooo.” Gavin whined. 

“WHAT?!” Michael snapped from the drivers seat.

“It’s surgeon simulator.” Gavin repeated.

Michael was silent for a moment before laughing. “It is. Now shut up while I lose these cops.” 

Luckily, the bullet had passed straight though Rays shoulder, instead of lodging itself in his arm to cause further damage. Caleb carefully bound Ray’s shoulder and wrote out a list of drugs that they would need to dull the pain. It didn’t look like there would be any lasting damage other than a scar, but Caleb recommended that Ray get lots of rest to prevent any further damage to his shoulder. After a quick check that Gavin didn’t have a concussion, Caleb was unceremoniously dropped off in a back alley.

He watched the ambulance speed away and took a moment to think about just how lucky he had been. Each of the men had been heavily armed but not a single one had pulled a weapon on him to threaten him. He sighed in relief and started the walk back to his apartment. At least he had an interesting story to tell at work the next day.

Caleb had thought that that was the end of it. But the Fake AH Crew didn’t seem to forget him like he thought they would.

The next night, Caleb found an envelope of money shoved through his door. When he counted it out, he found almost a thousand dollars crammed into the envelope. He hid the money in a cupboard, not quite sure what to do with it. 

He didn’t want to think about how they had found his address.

Almost a week later, there was a banging on his door at two in the morning. He sleepily pulled it open to reveal the masked man and the Brit, holding up their getaway driver. The brunette seemed to have been in a car crash of some sorts, with bruises, scraps and a few deep cuts littering his body. 

The men barrelled in, dropping Michael onto Calebs couch. 

“Can you help him?” Gavin asked, his voice soft and pleading. 

Caleb sighed as he rolled up his sleeves. “Someone go grab the medical kit from my bathroon.” He pointed down the hallway as he headed into the kitchen to wash his hands, accepting his fate as the Fake AH Crew’s medic.


	18. I AM MONSTER TRUCK

Jeremy was quite a reserved person. The lads assumed that this was due to the years of solitude that he seemed to have been stuck in. With no family and few friends, Jeremy barely got the opportunity to speak, never mind be excited about anything. But the Fake AH Crew had taken him in and they were determined to make him happy. 

They soon learned that, despite not owning a car, Jeremy was quite fond of driving. So, the boys got Jack to arrange a day out at a race track for them. 

Lindsay acquired an array of vehicles for the boys to play with. Gavin’s personal favourite was the fire engine. But Jeremy instantly fell in love with an obnoxiously bright purple and orange Monster Truck. 

The four lads engaged in a series of races, overseen by Geoff who demanded to be in charge of the whole affair despite the fact that Jack had arranged it all. 

Geoff laid down the ruled of the races and made sure that no-one was likely to crash. He knew his boys. They were easily distracted. And when driving, one little slip could be fatal. Which was why Geoff lost it when Michael took out his phone to snap-chat Lindsay in the middle of a race. 

“Are you a fucking idiot?” He yelled as he stomped over, snatching the phone out of Michael’s hand. “When you’re doing dangerous shit, you’ve gotta pay attention to the road Dumbass.”

“Says you. You fuckin’ drink and drive all the time.” Michael countered.

“Well I’m a fucking idiot too. The worst role model you’ll ever have. But I can damn well tell you what to do.” Geoff announced as he pocketed Michael’s phone. 

Meanwhile, Jeremy was having the time of his life. He rarely got the opportunity to be reckless, so he decided to enjoy it while he could. 

“I AM MONSTER TRUCK!” He yelled enthusiastically as he ran his monster truck over an empty car. 

Gavin pulled up next to Geoff, laughing to himself. “Gonna be an expensive day out, huh Geoff?” He asked, knowing that Geoff would have to pay for any damaged vehicles. 

“Yup.” Geoff sighed in resignation.

“Totally worth it though.” Gavin stated as he watched Jeremy beaming back at him. “He barely even smiles at school. So… thanks Geoff.” 

“You’re welcome Buddy.”


	19. The Red Skull

As teens, the boys had perfected the art of pranking. 

Gavin had a tendency to use his extensive knowledge of science in order to prank people in bizarre and unique ways. He liked to surprise people. 

His personal favourite was when he had enlisted Ray to distract Ryan just long enough so that Gavin could sneak into his room and steal his face paints. 

Gavin had gotten his hands on some glow in the dark pigment and carefully mixed it in to Ryan’s paint set, making sure that the texture was exactly the same so that it would be unnoticeable until Ryan was in the dark. 

The plan worked like a charm and Ryan was completely clueless until the middle of a heist when he noticed the small flecks of paint on his leather jacket were faintly glowing red. “Um…”

Gavin had the worst poker face. His snickering gave him away. But Ryan decided that instead of being upset that Gavin had messed with his paints, he would have a little fun with it. 

Ryan waited until Gavin was alone in a dark alley and quietly snuck up behind the teen.

“Gavin…” He practically whispered, his voice low and gravelly.

Gavin spun around, instinctively pulling up his weapon.

Ryan whipped his black mask off. The red paint had the strongest glow, the red skull painted over his face made Ryan look almost demonic.

“GAH!” Gavin squawked, falling backwards and scrambling away.

“What the hell was that?” Michael asked over the intercom system.

“Revenge.” Ryan smirked to himself.


	20. Birthday Blues

One of Jeremy’s few friends outside of the Fake AH Crew was his lab partner, Matt. 

Matt had an incredible ability to consume ridiculous amounts of junk food, but never gain any weight as a result. For Matt’s birthday, Jeremy decided that it would be funny if he brought in a massive birthday cake and see how much Matt could eat in one sitting.

Jeremy decided that it would be best if he made the cake himself. And spent hours the night before preparing, baking and decorating the cake. He was genuinely impressed by his own handiwork and looked forward to presenting Matt with his present the next day. 

Unfortunately, Jeremy had terrible luck.

Jeremy walked to school as usual, carrying the tray in his hands. He wasn’t sure how he would store the cake once he got to school, it certainly wouldn’t fit in his locker, but he would cross that bridge when he got to it. 

He often listened to music as he walked, his headphones blocking out any external noises. Which meant that he didn’t hear Gavins warning squawks. He only felt the impact as Gavin crashed into him at full velocity. The pair crashed to the ground, falling into the cake. 

“What the hell?” Jeremy yelled, suddenly covered in icing.

“Sorry Lil J!” Gavin yelped. “I tried to warn ya.” He explained, shakily getting to his feet.

“… Why are you wearing roller blades??” Jeremy questioned. 

“Micoo bet me I couldn’t beat him in a race. I took a short cut.” Gavin smiled happily. “What’s with the cake?” He asked, brushing crumbs off his jacket.

Jeremy looked down at the mashed pile of cake and sighed. “Matt’s birthday present.”

“Oop!” Gavins eyes went wide when he realised what he’d done. “…..Can we fix it?” 

“…..Half of it is on the pavement and the other half is in your hair.” Jeremy pointed out, trying not to get angry. “No. We can’t fix it.”

“I’m sorry Lil J….. I’ll come up with a solution! I promise!” 

Gavin skated away, pulling out his phone as he went. He almost looked like Bambi on the ice, Jeremy thought as he brushed the remnants of his hard work off his clothes. He sighed, abandoning the ruined cake and heading into school. 

Jeremy arrived at the school gates just in time to see Michael crash into Gavin, knocking the boy over so that Gavin wouldn’t win their race.

It was a small consolation. But not a great one.

* * *

During their first few periods of class, Jeremy drew up a birthday card on plain notepaper. It was rushed and sloppy, but at least he would have something to give his friend. 

As the bell for lunch rang, Ray grabbed Jeremy’s arm and pulled him into an abandoned class room. 

“What-??” 

“Orders from above.” Ray answered mysteriously. 

Jeremy glanced around at the room and noticed that each table was filled with a different kind of junk food. One was covered in pizza boxes. Another with a variety of cakes. There was even a table solely dedicated to french fries. 

“Um?”

“Gavin felt bad about fucking up your cake.” Ray explained, grabbing a Happy Meal from the McDonalds pile. “So we’re making it up to you. Aw sweet.” He smirked as he pulled a lego Batman toy from the box. 

“Oh..” Jeremy was lost for words. 

Matt was soon ushered into the room, escorted by Gavin and Michael. 

“Happy Birthday.” The lads sung in unison.

“…This is weird.” Matt commented. 

“Tell me about it.” Jeremy laughed. “Best to just roll with it.” He advised, passing Matt a cupcake. “Happy Birthday Matt.” 


	21. Exothermic Reactions

Michael hated school. This was common knowledge. If it wasn’t for his brothers, it was unlikely that Michael would even go to his classes. He wasn’t made for sitting still for hours on end. He would prefer being outside, getting his hands dirty.

The only exception to Michael’s hatred of school work was his science classes. He and Gavin were often teamed up as lab partners and it was often the only time that Michael would actually apply himself to the work. He would even occasionally do research outside of class. 

“This won’t work.” Michael stated, reading from the textbook Gavin had passed him. He leaned back against his locker as he read. “You see here? That’s an endothermic reaction.” He explained, pointing the the chart. “We need an exothermic one. We want the heat to be released, not stored. Ya moron.” 

“But Micoo-” 

Gavin was interrupted as a few jocks walked past them. One of them reached over and slapped the book out of Michael’s hands. 

“Nerd!” The jock yelled smugly as he walked away.

“Ooooh.” Gavin glanced over at Michael, who was shaking with rage. “That’s not good.”

Michael snatched the book off the floor and hurled it directly at the jock, with better aim than most of the football players. The book cracked against the teens head painfully and before the jock could figure out what had hit him, Michael pounced. 

“What’s going on?” Ray asked as he walked up to Gavin, casually watching the fight.

“He called Micco a nerd.” Gavin explained, wincing as he watched Michael single-handedly fight off the group of jocks. 

“Should we help him?” Ray asked.

“Nah.” Gavin shrugged. “Looks like he needs to let off some steam.”


	22. Hello Nurse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Blood

Gavin was a clumsy teen. His limbs were gangly and he often had very little control over them. 

He could also be rather oblivious if his mind was on something else. Which is how he hadn’t noticed the football streaking through the air before it hit him square in the nose. 

Using his hoodie to stifle the steady flow of blood, Gavin quickly made his way to the nurses office.

“Hi.” A teenage girl with dark red hair greeted him with a smile. “I’m Meg. The school nurse isn’t in right now. But I can try to help you?” 

“Uhh….” Gavin couldn’t form words. The girl was radiantly beautiful and he was suddenly feeling rather overwhelmed.

Meg tilted her head, gesturing to the hoodie that Gavin had bunched up and pressed against his face. “What’s the matter?”

“Oh!” Gavin lowered the hoodie. The material had become soaked in blood. Blood was smeared across his face and still running freely from his nose.

Meg passed out instantly. 

“Bloody hell!” Gavin squawked, moving to check on the girl. 

He picked her up and carefully placed the girl onto the hospital style bed in the corner of the room, panicking when he realised that he was getting spots of blood on her shirt. 

Thankfully, the schools nurse returned. She managed to stop Gavin from bleeding and assured him that Meg passing out was common, a lot of people had that reaction to seeing so much blood, and that as long as she hadn’t hit her head when she fell, she would be just fine. 

Gavin was sent home for the day before he had a chance to apologise to Meg. So the next morning before school, he purchased a small bouquet of daisies and a shirt that was as close as he could find to the one that he had stained with his blood. He used his connections to find out which locker was Megs and broke into it, leaving the presents along with a note of apology. 

_“Turney,  
_

_Did you know you faint when you see blood?_

_Sorry about that. My bad._

_I hope this shirt can replace the one I ruined (Getting blood out of clothes can be a real bitch)._

_Hope you like daisies!_

_See you around school._

_-Gav”_


	23. Hello Nurse; Part Two

Meg didn’t drive often, normally her father would drop her off at school to save her the trouble of finding a parking space. But driving to school by herself was occasionally necessary. Whenever she got the chance to drive, Meg blasted her music, enjoying brief feeling of freedom. 

She managed to find a parking space and got her car parked without any problems. However, everything went down hill as soon as she opened her car door. 

The was a loud crash as the tire of a bicycle hit her door. The bike and its owner were sent flying over the door. The rider did a front flip as he fell, which looked both impressive and very painful as he struck the ground.

“Jesus Christ!” Meg slammed the door shut and ran over to the boy. “Are you okay?!” 

“Yeah… Deja vu.” He laughed as he got to his feet. “Sorry about that. Didn’t meant to give ya a fright.”

“…Gavin?”

Gavin beamed in response. “Hey Turney! Did you get my flowers?” 

“Yeah….” Meg smiled. The last time she had seen the boy he had been covered in blood and she hadn’t stayed conscious for very long. His apology had been a bouquet of flowers and a new shirt. She had found the locker break-in surprisingly sweet. “Thank you. Are you alright?” 

“Hm? Oh yeah. I’m fine. That happens all the time.”

“… You crash into cars a lot?”

“More often than I’d like.” Gavin laughed. “Since I have your attention…. Are you free this Friday?” He asked nervous as he picked up his bike.

Meg paused a moment, taking in the boys nervous attitude and goofy smile. She smiled back at him. “Sure. You can pick me up at 6.” She wrote her number on the back of his hand before locking her car and heading through the school gates.

Gavin watched her leave with wide, unbelieving eyes. He punched the air in victory and raced off, excited to tell his brothers what had just happened.


	24. The Bat-Fam

Gavin had always been a fan of comics. His personal favourite had always been Batman. And as he grew older he realised that it was probably his favourite because of how it paralleled his life.

Geoff was the billionaire who had opened his home to a group of lost boys with nowhere else to go. He may not be a masked vigilante but he had style, wealth and equipment which could easily rival the caped crusaders. 

Gavin was the first boy to have been adopted by Geoff. That made him the first Robin who was suddenly all grown up and forging his own path in life. That made him Nightwing. (Which is why Nightwing had always been his favourite in the comics). The original robin has always inspired Gavin, especially when it come to his abilities with computers. Gavin modelled his hacking style off Dick Graysons, and had even made a computer virus that was cartoon version of his own face, just like his hero. 

Michael was definitely Red Hood. A Robin with serious anger issues. Thankfully, Michael was yet to die and be resurrected. When Michael got his first motorbike, Gavin persuaded him to get a red helmet so that he would look even more like the red hood. 

Gavin had come to think of Jeremy as Tim Drake, purely because of Jeremy’s adopted alter ego: Rimmy Tim. 

That made Ray Damian, the reluctant son who often had trouble understanding how people worked. The only main differences was that the little Robin had anger issues which could rival Michael and that Ray preferred sniping to close combat fighting. But dammit, Gavin had his analogy and he was going to make it work. 

Ryan was Oracle. The computer genius who could hack and decode any system. (The Batman villain Black Mask would probably be a better fit for Ryan given his Vagabond Alter-ego. But Gavin preferred thinking of him as a member of the family). 

Jack was the closest they had to an Alfred. Arguably the true head of the family, who’s logic and devotion kept the family afloat. 

There were others too. Meg was the Batgirl to his Nightwing and he had come to think of Lindsay as Catwoman. Mica even reminded him of Black Canary sometimes. 

The comparisons helped Gavin to think of his family as the good guys, the heroes. Even though he knew that if they were in Gotham, The Fake AH Crew would probably be the villains of the story.


	25. The Party Crashers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Guns And Violence

Ryan’s parents were typical socialites. They were always well dressed with faux-perky personalities. Every weekend was spent at extravagant events all over the city. They would grasp any excuse to host parties of their own. Which was why Ryan had dreaded his graduation.

The party was an over the top, lavish affair. Filled with people he barely recognised and had no interest in socialising with. He counted down the hours until he could escape to Geoffs penthouse and spend the rest of the night with his true family.

Ryan looked up with a relieved sigh as he spotted Meg walk through the door. She had a similar upbringing to him. Their mothers were close friends, so he had known her since she had been born. Meg was one of the few people who understood how draining and dull the socialite lifestyle could actually be.

He walked over with a calm smile, passing her a drink. “Purple today huh?” He asked, gesturing to her glistening hair.

“You should have seen my moms face when she saw it.” Meg laughed discreetly. “I thought her head was going to implode. You’d think it was the end of the world the way she reacts.”

“Well, I think it suits you.” Ryan complimented her with an easy smile. Meg was a good friend and helped him to feel more at ease despite the situation.

His peace was short lived as gun shots were heard at the entrance to the party.

“What the hell…?” Ryan muttered under his breath.

“Where is he?!” A brutish man stormed into the party, waving the gun above his head. Two other burly men followed behind him. “Where is the Vagabond!”

“Who on earth-” Ryans father started, but he was quickly cut off as the intruder pointed the gun at his head.

“We know he’s here. Our intel never lies. So where is the Vagabond?”

Ryan sighed, knowing what he had to do. “I’m right here.” He stated, bravely stepping forward.

The trio of men regarded him for a moment before breaking out into hysterical laughter.

“You’re just a scrawny brat.” One of the men managed to say through his laughter.

Ryan continued to walk forwards. “Looks can be deceiving.” His hand whipped out to grab the gun from the man pointing it at his father. Ryan used his other arm to crack his elbow against the mans jaw, knocking him to the ground. Ryan firmly placed a foot on the mans head, pointing the gun down at him. “I’m only going to say this once, so listen up.” He demanded glaring at the remaining intruders. “Get the hell out of my house. I don’t do warning shots.” He informed them, moving his foot off the mans head and kicking him over to his partners.

The man scrambled to his feet. He took once look at the teen who held his gun and started to back up. He had heard enough stories about the Vagabond to know that the boy wasn’t bluffing. “Let’s get out of here.” He grabbed his friends and ran.

Ryan could hear the sounds of sirens in the distance, someone must have called the police after hearing the gun shots. He looked down at the gun in his hands, then up at his parents, who were staring at him with horrified expressions. “I…I have to go.” He raced out the door, jumped into his car and sped towards the penthouse.

“You’re early.” Jack smiled as Ryan walked through the door. “How was the party?”

“I can’t go back…” Ryan told him quietly.

“To the party?” Jack asked with a bemused expression.

“No… I mean I can’t go home.”

“Oh Ry.” Jack pulled Ryan into a hug. “It’s okay. You have us.” She informed Ryan, her voice warm and welcoming. “You’ll always have us.”


	26. Michael And Kain

Michael loved his dog. 

All three of the Lads had rescued a puppy from streets back when they were kids but it was obvious that the dog belonged to Michael. 

Kain was a massive ball of fluff who had been surprisingly easy to train. After school, Michael would always walk Kain around the streets of Los Santos. He didn’t need a lead, Kain was too well trained for that. Michael would simply kick a ball across the streets for his dog to chase after. 

Just as Kain leapt for the ball, a flash of ginger fur snatched the ball away, carrying it into a nearby tree.

“…..What the hell?!” Michael yelled at the cat angrily. He looked down at the dog who appeared to be shaking. “You’re just going to let that slide? It’s a freaking cat! You’re higher up on the food chain!” Michael rolled his eyes as the dog whimpered and started to climb the tree with the intent of getting his ball back.

“What are you doing?” A voice from down below called up to him. 

Michael froze in place; he was hanging from a branch, one hand outstretched towards the cat. He glanced down to find Lindsay glaring up at him with an unimpressed expression. 

“What does it look like? I’m getting the damn ball.”

“Looks to me like you’re terrorising my cat. Leave McTavity alone.”

“He stole my dogs ball!”

“So what? Why is your dog even afraid of cats?” 

“Shut it!” Michael scowled, diving for the cat.

The cat batted the ball to the ground, hitting Kain on the head as it bounced, and nimbly leaped into Lindsay’s arms.

“Stupid cat.” Michael hissed.

Lindsay smirked. “Don’t be mad just because you were outsmarted by a cat.”

“The cat didn’t outsmart me!” Michael yelled back, face turning red from a combination of embarrassment and rage.

“Keep telling yourself that.” Lindsay giggled as she started to walk away. “Good luck getting down.”


	27. Battle Buddies

Jeremy wasn’t often left alone with Ryan, but when he was he always found It an incredibly unnerving situation, He just couldn’t figure out what to think of the infamous “vagabond”. The dangerous man could shift from joking and goofy to creepy and murderous in a split second. 

Jeremy would be lying if he said he wasn’t scared of Ryan.

The pair sat in an uncomfortable silence until Ryan finally broke the tension. “So, how’s school?” He asked in a surprisingly casual tone of voice.

“Er, its fine, I guess?” Jeremy ventured, terrified that it was some kind of trick question.

“Just fine?” Ryan prompted.

“Well its just…. School. And school sucks.” Jeremy shrugged.

“What sucks about it?” 

“Some of the classes I guess…” Jeremy admitted, avoiding eye contact. “I might be failing my English classes.” 

“Why’s that?” 

Jeremy sighed deeply. “I just don’t like reading at the best of times. Shakespeare is so hard to follow. I don’t understand what they’re saying half the time!” 

“Which play are you studying?” 

“Macbeth.” Jeremy replied sullenly. 

“Oh, well that’s an easy one.” Ryan commented. “A real interesting story.”

“We mustn’t be reading the same play.”

Ryan laughed and launched into a full breakdown of the plot of Macbeth. He found that Jeremy was more interested by the fights and battles that littered the play, so he was careful to focus on those aspects. Before Jeremy left, Ryan dug out his old Shakespeare notes and handed them over. “These should help. But if you need any extra tuition, just give me a call okay?”

“Okay…” Jeremy looked up at Ryan with a bemused smile. “Thanks a bunch…. This is great.”

“Anytime.” Ryan beamed. “You’re part of the family now.”

“…I am?” Jeremy asked cautiously.

“Yes.” Ryan patted him on the back. “Go on, the boys are waiting for you.”

Jeremy noted mutely before heading out to meet Michael, Ray and Gavin, gripping Ryan’s notes tightly. He smiled contently; he had never felt more accepted and at home than when he was with the Fake AH Crew.


	28. The King And Queen of Los Santos High

Prom was pretty much what Jeremy had expected it to be. A poorly decorated gym filled with drunk teenagers. 

After realising there were no other drinks that hadn’t been spiked with alcohol, Jeremy grabbed a few bottles of water before walking over to Ray and passing one over to the teen. 

“You never told us you had a date.” He commented, gesturing to the brunette who was dancing with her friends. 

“Didn’t seem like important information.” Ray shrugged casually. 

“Think you’ll get laid?” Jeremy joked as he took a swig of water.

“Nah. I’m not into banging chicks.” Ray replied casually.

Jeremy almost chocked on his water. “Oh… you’re….?? So why is your date a girl?” He asked, perplexed.

“I’m not into banging dudes either.” Ray rolled his eyes. “I’m just not into banging I guess.” 

“Huh…” 

“I like girls in general though.” Ray expanded. “Especially this one. She’s nice. Sweet. I just don’t want to get into her pants, that’s all.” He shrugged casually.

Before Jeremy could ask any questions, Gavin appeared and dragged them to the dance floor. “Come on! They’re going to announce King and Queen!”

“So?” Ray raised an eyebrow. “Why should I care which dumb jock and cheerleader duo get a plastic crown.”

Gavin smirked, winking at Ray as he pulled them closer to the front of the crowd. 

“And this years prom queen is…. Macey Lestrade?” 

“Oh sweet!” Jeremy gasped, applauding with the rest of the crowd. There was a bemused silence as no-one appeared on stage. “…. She’s fucking Deaf, she didn’t hear that.” Jeremy looked around, quickly spotting Macey towards the back of the crowd. Her bright blonde hair was carefully styled to hide the deep scarring on the right side of her face. She was totally oblivious to the commotion.

Jeremy waved his arms over his head to get her attention.

She smiled softly and waved back.

Jeremy pointed at her frantically, then pointed to the stage.

She tilted her head, one eyebrow raised. She moved her index finger from side to side. _“What?”_

Jeremy brought his hands to either side of his head, mimicking a crown and pointed to her again. 

Giving up on the charades, he pushed his way through the crowd and offered his hand, leading her up to the stage where the principle placed a tiara on her head.

Jeremy gave her a thumbs up before heading back into the crowd.

“And this years prom king is… Jeremy Dooley!”

“ **What?!** ” Jeremy blurted out loudly, spinning back around. 

“So you rigged the votes huh?” Ray commented under his breath as the lads applauded.

“Yup. Plan A was to do a Carrie and cover the winners in pigs blood.” Michael explained with a sly smirk.

“But then we figured we could just rig it so that people who needed a confidence boost would win.” Gavin beamed as a crown was placed on Jeremy’s head. “She’s obviously gone through a lot of shit and people at school are normally dicks to her. And Jeremy could do with cheering up, he’s always so worried about everything. He deserves a fun night. So he gets to be the king.” 

The lads cheered as Jeremy and Macey stepped onto the dance floor. It was a bumbling dance. Jeremy had no sense of rhythm and Macey couldn’t hear the music at all. But they smiled and laughed the entire time, spinning in circles across the floor. 

Gavin and Michael high fived as the song came to an end. Operation Royals was a complete success. 


	29. Meeting The Family

Gavin was so excited he could explode. He and Meg had been a number of dates and she was coming over to the penthouse for the day to play video games. She had already met Ray, Michael and Jeremy at school, but it would be her first time meeting the rest of the family. 

Gavin hadn’t warned them that his girlfriend was coming over. He knew that Geoff would just make some big show of it, and Gavin didn’t want to scare Meg off. All he told them was that he had a friend coming around and that they had to be nice. 

Holding Megs hand, Gavin entered through the front door of the penthouse and found Ryan sat alone in the living room, reading The Phantom Of The Opera. 

Ryan looked up as the door closed. “Oh, Hi Meg.”

“Hey Ryan.” Meg smiled, waving at the older man.

Gavin’s eyes went wide. “ _Guh- Uh- **WHAT**_ **?** ” His voice was a high pitched shriek, which Michael affectionately called his bird voice.

“Are you alright….?” Meg asked, concerned. 

“How…?” 

“How what?”

“How do you bloody know Ryan, that’s what??”

“Oh.” Meg giggled. “We’ve known each other since we were kids.”

“You were the kid.” Ryan pointed out, closing his book. “I’m older.”

“Oh, get off your high horse, you’re not that much older than we are.” She laughed. “Our families are close.”

“But we’re…?” Gavin started, a look of confusion on his face.

“My other family.” Ryan explained gently.

“You were cheating on us with a different family?” Gavin gasped.

“Yes! You know this about me. You met my parents once!”

“….oh yeah.” Gavin chuckled nervously. “So…. this meet the girlfriend thing is kind of anticlimactic huh?”

“Just wait until Geoff and Jack get home.” Ryan smirked. 

“….. oh no.” Gavin muttered under his breath, sensing that  a day of utter embarrassment was drawing closer. 


	30. Operation Baby Jones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings; Guns and blood

“I need you to fake date me.” 

“…Michael.” Lindsay arched an eyebrow. “We’re already dating.” 

“Not like that.” Michael explained awkwardly. “I mean like for a heist.”

“I’m listening.” Lindsay folded her arms, curious. 

“I’d just need you to go undercover with me for a little while. You know? As a distraction. No-one will be looking at me if there’s a pregnant teen to gawk at.”

“Pregnant?”

“Yeah, that would be part of the disguise. If that’s cool with you?”

“Sure.” Lindsay shrugged. “I love dress up.”

“It’s not dress up!” Michael protested. “It’s a very dangerous heist.”

“Which involves dress up.” 

“…I guess.” He admitted reluctantly.

Lindsay laughed. “Okay, I’m in. But if we get caught I’m blaming you.”

“That’s fair.”

* * *

Gavin spent his afternoon helping Lindsay to make a convincing baby bump. As they worked, Gavin excitedly told Lindsay about his date plans with Meg. He jumped to his feet as soon as he heard the doorbell ring. “That’s her!” He raced to the door, almost slipping on the hardwood floors in his hurry.

“Hey Gav.” Meg smiled sweetly. 

“Turney!” Gavin beamed. “Come in.”

Meg paused as she spotted Lindsay. “I’m not interrupting anything am I…?”

“What? No, I-” Gavin realised that Lindsay suddenly looked very pregnant. “Oh! No! She’s not-! It’s not-! I…”

Lindsay laughed. “It’s for a heist.” She explained, tapping the fake bump.

"Is that… is that my bra?” Meg asked, gesturing to the undergarment that lay atop a pile of fabric.

“Oh! Yeah, we were experimenting with ways to make Lindsay look more pregnant. I’ll get you a new one.”

“Do you have any idea how much that cost?” Meg complained, stuffing the ruined bra into her purse. 

Before Gavin could respond, Geoff and Michael entered through the front door.

“….Do I even want to know what’s going on here?” Geoff asked with a sigh.

“I’m pregnant.” Lindsay announced, completely deadpan. 

“I can’t believe you’re carrying my child.” Michael gasped dramatically.  

“How do I look?” She asked, twirling around for him.

"You’re hot, shame about the personality though.” Michael laughed teasingly. 

"Are you hitting on me?” She winked. “You know, you should marry me.” Lindsay stated jokingly. “We don’t want an illegitimate kid.”

“I’m not drunk enough for this.” Geoff sighed, leaving the room.

* * *

The whole crew were out for the heist. 

Michael and Lindsay were in the centre of the bank. Lindsay was the centre of attention which allowed Michael to disable the security systems. 

“Are you scared?” Gavin asked over the comms system, knowing that this was Lindsay’s first big heist. 

“Not really.” She replied quietly. “I’m a big girl. I can handle it.” 

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Michael and Lindsay were ducking behind an overturned table, hiding from the barrage of bullets from the cops. 

“Shit.” Michael muttered to himself as he pulled a grenade out of his backpack and tossed it over the table. 

“Did you just..?” Lindsay asked, jumping as the small explosion shook the room.

"No, I didn’t murder them. I accidentally knocked them unconscious forever, that’s all.” 

Lindsay winced as bullets crashed against the thick table. “Cuddle me.” She demanded, wrapping her arms around Michael’s waist. 

“Kind of busy here!” Michael snapped back, incredibly tense. “Ray, I could use some more cover!”

“Okay, but if I die I’m going to come back and haunting you.” Ray announced over the comms.

“Deal!”

"Oh my god. My parents can not find out about this. If they find out, I’ll kill myself and then you!” She rambled, voice high and panicked. “I’m serious! If I die you’ll be sorry!” 

“Will you be _quiet_?!” Michael hissed, he regretted bringing Lindsay along. He couldn’t focus with her in danger. He jumped to his feet, abandoning his cover, and pointed his gun at the army of police officers. "You have approximately 5 seconds to get out of my face before I kill you.” 

Lindsay followed suit, getting up to her feet to stand next to Michael. She was promptly shot in the shoulder. 

“I’m going to kill you!” Michael snarled as Lindsay passed out, unloading a barrage of bullets into the army of cops. 

A police car, driven by Jeremy, burst through the main entrance shielding Michael and Lindsay.

“Get in!” Gavin yelled from the passenger seat.

“I’m going to kill them all first.”

“Will you be _quiet_  and get in the sodding car!” Gavin snapped, jumping out to help carry Lindsay onto the back seat.

"Sometimes I really don’t like you.” Michael snarled. He reluctantly climbed in the car, continuing to shoot as they drove off.

"Ow! Ow! Stop hitting me!” Jeremy complained as bullets ricocheted off their car. 

“They’re not even hitting you.” Gavin said from the passenger seat.

“Shut up, I’m just tense okay!” Jeremy replied, swerving around a corner. “Just leave me alone!”

“ _You_ shut up!” 

“Make me!” Jeremy snapped back.

“Will you both shut up!” Michael roared, taking his shirt off and wrapping it around Lindsay’s arm to stop the blood. “Someone call Caleb.”

“On it.” Ray stated over the comms system. 

“What about the cops?” Gavin asked.

“Ryan’s distracting them.” Ray explained.

They could just make out Ryan sarcastically imitating the cops over the comms.  “ _Drop your weapon or we’ll shoot!”_ This was followed by a barrage of gunfire. 

“The situation is under control.” Jack piped up. “Just focus on getting Lindsay back safely.”

* * *

Lindsay woke hours later. She sat up to find Michael sat next to her. 

"You said my name in your sleep.” He stated quietly, a tired smile on his face. 

“Yeah? I had the weirdest dream. You and McTavity were fighting. But  McTavity   was just a kitten, which is weird because I got his as an adult, but anyway, you were all  _‘It bit me!’_ but McTavity said  _‘ We’re just friends and that’s how friends show their love.’_ Oh, yeah, McTavity could talk too. That was kind of weird I guess, but it made sense at the time. Then McTavity said ‘ _Are you jealous?_ ’ and I gotta be honest, I kinda was. Because he’s my cat! I should be his dream-friend, not you!”

“You’re rambling.” Michael chuckled softly. “That’s probably the pain meds.”He sighed. “I’m really sorry about all of this Linds. You gotta believe me, I didn’t think you’d get hurt.” 

"Shut up and kiss me.” She grabbed Michael’s shirt, pulling him down for a kiss.

Michael smiled contently as he pulled away from the kiss. “You’re really okay?”

“Well, my back’s a bit sore from when you stabbed me with your knife.” Lindsay replied with a joking smile. 

"Bite me.”

 “If you insist.” Lindsay smirked.

“Can I kiss you again instead?” 

“Of course.” Lindsay beamed, pulling him onto the bed with her. “I deserve some TLC after all.” 


	31. Easy A

It wasn’t prostitution. At least, that’s what Meg told herself. And everyone else who questioned her. If anything, it was the opposite.

It had all started with a rumour. 

The news had spread though the school that she had, god forbid, had sex! Meg wasn’t sure how the rumour got started but she didn’t really care about the lies. All of the attention that she was getting was starting to become tiring though.

In particular, the backlash from the religious students was fierce and unexpected. 

She could hand most of the barbs. But when a girl in her English class called her a whore, Meg didn’t hesitate in hurling her copy of “The Scarlet Letter” across the room, breaking the girls nose. 

Meg sighed as she waited outside of the Principal office. She looked up as the door opened, surprised to find Gavin exiting with blood dripping from his nose. 

He covered his nose the second he spotted her, clearly remembering the last time she had fainted at the sight of his blood. 

“I’m fine.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Which is more than can be said for you apparently.”

“You should see the other guy.” He joked as he headed for the exit. 

Meg chuckled as she entered and took a seat at the Principals desk. She knew how this would go down. It had to look like he was punishing her, otherwise there would be a parental backlash, but since Meg’s parents had recently paid for a new library, it wouldn’t be much of a punishment.

In the end, she got two days worth of detention. One was spent cleaning the gym, and the other was spent with Gavin, Michael, Jeremy and Lindsay. Detention with the others was interesting, they had spent more time getting high than they had working on their assigned essays. 

The next day, her friend Brandon appeared at her house with a dilemma. He wasn’t ready to come out of the closet and wanted to appear straight to the rest of their classmates. So the pair devised a plan to make the student body believe that they had slept together. It wasn’t difficult. The rumour mill was fierce and unrelenting. Meg was rewarded with a gift basket from Brandon filled with her favourite chocolates and a gift card. 

News started to spread as Brandon told a few of his friends the truth. Meg soon found that pretending to sleep with people was quite a lucrative business which involved zero effort. 

“I want a one hundred dollar gift card deposited into my locker by noon tomorrow.” She explained to her latest customer. “Preferably to the Gap, but I’d also take Amazon.com, or Office Max. Actually, make it Office Max - I have my eye on a label maker. We did not have sex. I let you fondle my chest, and it was a glorious moment for you. Unmatched by anything you have heretofore experienced.” She raised her eyebrows. “Understand?”

“Yes!” He squeaked excitedly in response. 

As her business grew, so did the backlash against her. Meg’s new favourite pastime was taunting them. She wore corsets and miniskirts to school, all proudly displaying a red “A”, although she suspected none of her fellow students actually understood the reference. 

Her customer that night seemed promising, he took her to a fancy meal and offered her a gift card to her favourite store. 

“So, what did we do tonight?” She asked, tucking the gift card into her purse. 

“We can figure that out as we go.” He replied, kissing her neck.

Meg shuddered, pushing him away. “That’s not how this works.”

“What? I paid you, so you owe me.” He demanded, grabbing her wrists and pulling her in for a kiss.

Before Meg could reach for the pocket knife she had stashed away in her belt, a fist appeared out of nowhere, cracking against her assailants jaw. 

“Pretty sure she said no Mate.” Gavin stated, wiping blood off his knuckles. 

The guy scrambled to his feet and dashed away. 

“You okay…?” Gavin asked tentatively. 

“Wonderful.” Meg lied. 

“Listen, I’ve been hearing things…”

“The rumours are true. I am, in fact, considering becoming an existentialist.” Meg joked. She sighed. “This may have gotten out of hand. Everyone thinks I’m some kind of whore and apparently, guys think I’m public property.” 

"Screw them.” 

"Haven’t you heard?” Meg joked weakly. “I already did.” 

“…Come on.” Gavin smiled warmly. “I’ll buy you a coffee and we can talk.” 

“That’s sounds great actually… Thanks Gavin.” She smiled weakly as he took her hand and led her to the nearest Starbucks. It ended up being their first date. Once she and Gavin started dating, Meg swore off any imaginary sexual encounters, despite how profitable her business had been.


	32. Just Blaze

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Drugs

Ray was tense. That, in itself, was nothing new. He was constantly pretending to be fine, even if he was on the verge of a breakdown. 

Normally, it was easy enough to keep under control. But when Geoff first suggested heists, Ray became nervous. He had to remain calm during a heist. He was their sniper for Christs’ sake. If his hands shook then he could endanger the whole family.

He needed a quick and easy solution for keeping his nerves under control. 

Which is why he headed to the bleachers after school to seek out the stoner kids. After all, they always seemed relaxed. Maybe they had something that could help him. 

Obviously he couldn’t explain that he was going into a heist. So Ray decided to ask for something that would calm just his nerves. Exam season was coming up after all. So that was a good enough excuse. 

He wandered towards the group and sat next to Matt, as casually as he could. 

“Hey man.” Matt greeted Ray with a warm smile. 

“Hey. I heard that you were the best place to get drugs around here.” He asked, figuring it would be best to get straight to the point. 

“What kind you looking for?”

“Anything that’ll keep me calm.” Ray explained.

“How about weed?” A girl with long blonde hair asked. “I have some in my backpack?” 

“What about Valium? Or Xanax?” Another boy asked. “My moms a pharmacist so it’d be a piece of cake getting them for you?”

“I’m not sure what would be best.” Ray admitted. “I want to be calm, but I can’t dull my reaction times at all.”

“How about I give you a little starter kit.” Matt explained, dropping a few pills into a ziplock back. “Only take one of these per day, see what works for you. If you like anything, we can get you some more. If nothing works, we’ll get you some weed.” He passed the bag over, patting Ray on the back.

“Thanks… How much do I owe you?” Ray asked, reaching for his wallet.

“This ones on the house.” Matt smiled. “Good luck.” 

Ray nodded silently and quickly escaped. When he was out of sight, he swallowed what looked to be a Xanax pill. “Here goes nothing.” He sighed, heading home so that they could start the heist set up.


	33. Just Blaze  Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Drugs  
> (Thanks to Cathinthebox for pointing out that I accidentally uploaded this to the baby years!)

It didn’t take Jack long to find the pills.

Ray hadn’t done a particularly good job of hiding them. They had just been thrown into one of the drawers in his room.

Jack sighed and headed to Geoffs office. “I think we have to sit the boys down and talk to them.”

Geoff glanced up. “What about?”

Jack lifted up the bag so that Geoff could see it.

“… Fucking hell.” Geoff sighed, resting his palm against his face. “Family meeting!!” He yelled, his voice echoing through the penthouse.

“Jesus Christ Geoff, no need to yell.” Michael stated as he walked in, rubbing his ears dramatically. He had obviously been working out and was dressed in a simple t-shirt and sweatpants.

“Yeah, yeah.” Geofff waved a hand dismissively, clearly in a bad mood. “Where are your brothers?”

“They’re coming. Take a chill pill.” Michael rolled his eyes as he took a seat.

Jack tried not to laugh at the unfortunate phrasing.

Geoff’s eyes narrowed as Ray and Gavin entered the office. “What the hell is this?” He asked, gesturing to the bag of pills.

“…Shit.” Rays face fell, the panic clear on his face.

“Where did you get this from?” Geoff demanded.

“Some guys at school…” Ray admitted, avoiding eye contact.

“Ray!” Gavin gasped dramatically.

Geoff shook his head. “You should know better than this Ray.”

“I know! I-”

“If you’re going to get drugs, I can get them through one of my contacts. At least then we know they’re safe. These could be made from baby powder for all you know.”

“…Wait. You’re not mad?”

“I’m mad that you were a dumb little shit about it instead of just asking me. Do you how much shit I’d have gotten at your age if my dad was a crime boss. You have the connections Buddy, use them properly.”

“I thought…”

“You thought we wouldn’t approve?” Jack guessed.

Ray nodded his head.

“We understand Ray…. Is this because you boys have started heisting with us.”

“…Yes.” Ray explained reluctantly. “But it doesn’t mean I can’t do it! I can and I want to! I just… need a little help staying calm. That’s all…”

“Then we’ll get you whatever you need. But no more deals with dumb kids at your school.”

“Okay Geoff…”

Geoff dropped the bag of drugs into a drawer of his desk. “Same goes for all of you. You want to try something reckless and illegal? You ask me first.”

“….Can I get a tattoo?” Michael asked, his eyes lighting up at the idea.

“….. Only if it’s a cool design.” Geoff informed him with a swift nod.


	34. Headcanon Ask Dump

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter will be updated to include all head-canon asks I get over on tumblr

**Gavin**

  * **2-4 songs that are probably on their iPod:** Gavin normally just downloads whatever is in the charts and keeps the ones he likes. He also likes classical music but won’t admit it to anyone for fear of being teased. His personal favourite is Moonlight Sonata. 
  * **The one place they sometimes end up falling asleep — where they’re not supposed to:** He often falls asleep in other peoples rooms. If he’s up late playing games with Michael, he’ll quite happily fall asleep there. Michael doesn’t mind. 
  * **The game they’d _destroy_ everyone else at: ** Mario Party (if he gets the right mini games)
  * **The emoticon they’d use most often:** ;D
  * **What they act like when they haven’t had enough sleep:** A lot more irritating than usual. His filter basically disappears. 
  * **Their preferred hot beverage on really cold nights. or mornings. or whenever:** Mochas. Michael teases him, calling it a ‘girly’ coffee. But Gavin doesn’t care. It tastes great. 
  * **How they like to comfort/care for themselves when they’re in a slump:** Gavin will surround himself with his family when he’s in a slump. Either by hanging out in one of the Lads room or bugging Geoff in his office. He would rather be distracted than worry about his problems. 
  * **What they wanted to be when they grew up** : As long as he has his family, Gavin doesn’t particularly care what he’ll do in the future. 
  * **Their favourite kind of weather:**  Gavin likes the sun. He likes to be outside exploring, which is best done in sunny weather. He always jokes that American weather is way better than British weather, even though he barely remembers England. 
  * **Thoughts on their singing voice (decent? terrible? soprano? alto?)** Terrible, but that doesn’t stop him from singing off key. 
  * **How/what they like to draw or doodle** : Gavin draws the Queen and other stereotypical British images. It started as a joke, but now it’s just habit. 



**Ray**

  * **2-4 songs that are probably on their iPod:** Rays collection of music is mostly meme based. His ringtone is John Cena and his most played song is Wake Me Up by Evanescence 
  * **The one place they sometimes end up falling asleep — where they’re not supposed to:** Literally anywhere. If Ray’s tired he will just fall asleep wherever he happens to be. It normally happens at school. 
  * **The game they’d _destroy_ everyone else at: ** Any game he picks up.
  * **The emoticon they’d use most often:** Probably the sunglasses one.
  * **What they act like when they haven’t had enough sleep:** Most people can’t tell the difference, he’s just a bit more lethargic and slower to make jokes.
  * **Their preferred hot beverage on really cold nights. or mornings. or whenever:** Normally Ray isn’t a fan of hot drinks (he prefers energy drinks) but he’ll never say no to cocoa made by Jack.
  * **How they like to comfort/care for themselves when they’re in a slump:** Ray will ignore the world and play video games for hours on end until one of his family members notice and help to distract him.
  * **What they wanted to be when they grew up** : A member of the Fake AH Crew.
  * **Their favourite kind of weather:** Ray likes stormy weather. Mostly because it’s a great excuse to stay indoors. 
  * **Thoughts on their singing voice (decent? terrible? soprano? alto?)** Terrible. Just terrible. 
  * **How/what they like to draw or doodle** : Ray doodles a lot at school when he finds it hard to concentrate. He mostly draws video game characters (his personal favourite being Luigi).



**Ryan**

  * **2-4 songs that are probably on their iPod:** Ryan likes musicals. His favourite song to listen to is Non-Stop (Hamilton) and his ring tone is Candy Store (Heathers) (Mica stole his phone and set it as that. Ryan doesn’t care enough to change it)



**Jeremy**

  * **2-4 songs that are probably on their iPod:** Lil J likes fast paced songs that get him pumped up. He would definitely have Phoenix (Fall Out Boy). He also has a few Taylor Swift songs. He’ll fight anyone who says Blank Space is a bad song.



  **Michael**

  * **2-4 songs that are probably on their iPod:** Jealous (Nick Jonas) and everything by Star Bomb/ NSP
  * **The one place they sometimes end up falling asleep — where they’re not supposed to:**  If someone else is driving, Michael will fall asleep in the car, particularly on long road trips. 
  * **The game they’d _destroy_ everyone else at: ** Any fighting games, especially melee ones. 
  * **The emoticon they’d use most often:**




	35. Versus

As well as “Go”, the Fake AH family had another weekly game; Versus.

Every week two members of the family would go head to head in a game of the challengers choosing. The winner didn’t have to do chores for that week.

Ray was the reigning champion. He hadn’t done chores in four months. He was unbeatable. 

But that all changed the day Jeremy moved in. 

Jeremy was quickly added to the ‘Versus’ roster and it wasn’t long before the pair went head to head. 

“I challenge you to… Mario Kart?” Jeremy stated cautiously, still unsure of how the challenges worked. 

“Alright, best of three races wins!” Geoff announced dramatically as Jack set the game up. “Good luck boys.” 

It was a close race, Ray won the first round no problem. But Jeremy snuck up on him during the second round. The third game was the tie breaker. Michael and Gavin cheered Jeremy on excitedly, eager to see someone beat Ray for once. 

“Who’s the king now bitch?!” Jeremy gloated as he raced past the finish line. He instantly regretted it. In the past, cockiness was often punished. He winced, expecting a punishment.

But the Lads simply laughed.

“King J.” Gavin applauded enthusiastically. 

“Here you go kid.” Geoff passed Jeremy a trophy. 

Jeremy glanced over at Ray, expecting the reigning champion to be upset by the loss. But Ray simply shrugged. “It’s about time someone beat me.” He chuckled, high fiving Jeremy.


	36. Big Fun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PSA: Don't drink and drive kids!

Megs parents were away for the weekend, which could only mean one thing; it was time for her to host a party.

It was initially supposed to be a low-key event, with only the Fake Ah Crew Lads (and Michael’s girlfriend Lindsay) coming over. 

But Megs school friends had gotten wind of the plans and it quickly spread throughout the school that she was hosting a party. Meg didn’t particularly mind though, the more the merrier. (And if it helped improve her reputation after the Scarlet Letter debacle, even better.) 

Megs family home was massive. But most of the party was concentrated outside, by the poolside. Music was blasting from the giant sound system in the living room and most of the teenagers were already drunk. 

Michael was sat at a table challenging anyone who passed him to an arm wrestling competition and took a shot every-time he lost a game (he occasionally drunk when he won as well). It was the most drunk anyone had ever seen him. Lindsay had started switching Michael’s shots with lemonade and was taking bets on how long it would take him to notice.

Ray and Jeremy were sat on the roof of the garage with Matt and a few other teens. Matt was happily sharing his stash of weed with Ray. Jeremy politely declined. He didn’t like the idea of not being in control of his own mind. That didn’t stop him from drinking though. 

Ryan had been invited but had declined when he found out just how many high school students would be attending. He figured he just wouldn’t feel comfortable. 

Meg smiled as she spotted Gavin. She snuck up behind him. “Hey handsome. Come here often?” 

“Whu-?” Gavin wasn’t sure how to respond. “No! I…??”

Meg laughed. “Relax. I’m flirting with you.”

“You are?” Gavin’s eyes lit up. 

Meg kissed his cheek in response. 

“Hey, uh, we have a problem.” Lindsay interrupted.

“What’s up?” Gavin asked, one arm around Megs waist.

“Michael’s gone.”

“Gone where?”

“Just… gone! Disappeared! Vanished!” Lindsay explained with wild hand gestures. “He went to take a piss like twenty minutes ago. And no-ones seen him since.” 

A friend of Meg ran over, a note in her hand. “This was stuck in the front door with a knife!” The teen gasped dramatically, passing Meg the note.

“If you want Mogar. Come find us.” Meg read aloud. “And there’s a little drawing of a cow in the corner… What on earth does that mean?”

Gavin’s eyes narrowed. “It means war.” 

The Lads weren’t exactly in the best state to stage a rescue. Ray was high and Jeremy and Gavin were pretty drunk. But they weren’t going to let that stop them. 

Meg watched them race away and quickly grabbed her phone to call Ryan. “Hey Ry. How come every time I have a party, criminals are attracted to you guys?”

“What happened?”

“No idea. There’s some cryptic note about ‘Mogar’. Michael’s disappeared. And the boys have all ran off to their cars. Which, given how drunk they are, is probably a pretty bad idea.”

Ryan sighed. “Thanks for the heads up Meg.” 

“Do me a favour? Make sure Gavin doesn’t do anything dangerous and reckless?” 

“I’m not a miracle worker Meg.” Ryan replied. “Gotta go.” He hung up and raced over to tell Geoff and Jack what he knew.


	37. Big Fun [Part 2]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warnings: Blood, guns, violence

Michael was missing, kidnapped by a rival gang.The remaining lads were staging a rescue mission, but given how intoxicated they were from Meg’s party, Geoff wasn’t optimistic about their chances. 

“We’re going to have to call in some help for this one.” Geoff stated, pulling out his phone.

“Who are you calling?” Ryan asked as he grabbed his black skull mask.

“Some old friends.” 

The lads were quickly located (Jack had implanted trackers in all their vehicles. Just in case). Geoff cut them off and opened his window to yell. “Get in the fucking car!”

“There’s no time Geoff!”.

“You dumb-asses are too drunk to drive. Get the fuck in!” 

The boys abandoned their car and quickly climbed into Geoff’s. 

“They’ve taken Michael!” Jeremy explained panicked, it was the first time a member of his new family had been in any real danger. 

“I know. Luckily, the pricks took Michael’s car too.” 

“How’s that lucky?” Ray questioned.

“It means we can track him down.” Jack explained. “We already have some friends headed over there.”

“You have friends?” Ray asked jokingly, the severity of the situation hadn’t hit him yet. He was too high to be worried. 

“Shut up.” Geoff responded as they sped towards what looked to be an abandoned hospital building on the outskirts of the town. Three men were stood there waiting for them.

“Is that….. Mr Burns?” Jeremy asked, with wide surprised eyes.

“…. You know Burnie?” Jack responded.

“He’s our fucking science teacher.”

“Huh…. Did you know that Geoff?”

“I knew he’d took some dumb teaching job. Didn’t ask where though.”

“It’s not a dumb job.” Burnie responded wearily. “I’m imparting my wisdom on the next generation.”

“You’re a glorified babysitter. You should have stuck with heisting. Way more profitable.”

“I’m too old for that shit now.” 

“You’re only fourty-four!” 

“Can you maybe have this argument AFTER we save Michael?!” Gavin interjected, clearly stressed. 

“Alright, alright.” Geoff ran a hand through his hair. “Ray, you’re with me and Jack. Jeremy, go with Gus and Joel. Burnie, you take Gavin and Ryan.”

“We don’t need babysitting.” Ray stated with a slight pout.

“….Are you high?” Gus asked, looking into Rays pupils. 

“Shut up! Let’s just go already.” Ray started to head into the warehouse. 

Gavin stayed close to Ryan as the walked through the abandoned halls. The atmosphere felt like something straight out of a horror movie. The most surreal part was watching his science teacher brandishing a gun, checking that each room was clear before they advanced. 

They eventually reached a room which looked recently disturbed. There was a lone chair in the centre of the room which had been knocked over. It was encircled by cut ropes which suggested that someone had been tied to the chair. 

“Whatever happened here, it was quite the fight.” Burnie commented, pointing out all of the blood and a few loose teeth which littered the floor. 

Gavin spotted Michael’s jacket hidden under a desk. He pulled it out, wincing as he saw that it had been splattered with blood. 

“Hey Ry. Gimmie your gun?” Gavin asked as he pulled Michael’s jacket on over his t-shirt. 

“Why?”

“Because I’m going to fucking kill someone.” Gavin stated, sounding a lot like Michael. 

Meanwhile, Michael was riding down the streets of Los Santos on a BMX he had stolen. His face was badly bruised, he could barely see out of one eye. His knuckles stung and blood dripped from his lips. But other than that he was surprisingly okay. 

As he rode, his front tire suddenly collided with a car door. He flipped over the door, landing on his arm. “FUCK!” He yelled as the pain hit him. He had broken his elbow as a kid so it was weak and prone to injuries. Michael was fairly confident that it had just broken again.

“What the f- …Michael?” Lindsay gasped, running to his side. “What the hell happened to you?”

“You hit me with a car door.” Michael explained sarcastically, sitting up.

“That’s not-! Never mind. Get in the car. I’ll take you home.” She helped Michael into the back seat and shut the car door. She quickly called Gavin, just to let him know that she had found Michael. Once she assured Gavin that everything was okay she took Michael to the families penthouse apartment. 

It didn’t take long for everyone to arrive home. Gavin raced over to Michael enveloping him in a hug. “Micoo!!”

“Ow! Jesus Fuck. Careful. I think my arms broken again.”

“Let me take a look.” Gus walked over to examine Michael’s arm.

“Who the fuck are you?” 

“I’m your friendly Uncle Gus. Now shut up and let me see.”

Michael had to be taken to hospital to be properly bandaged up. They told the doctors that he had fallen down some stairs to avoid raising any unwanted attention. Luckily, Michael’s history of dumb injuries meant that the doctors believed him. 

Lindsay, Gavin, Jeremy and Ray refused to leave Michael’s side and stayed in the hospital until Michael was eventually released and allowed to go home. 

The ride home was tense and silent. 

“…What happened?” Ryan broke the silence after they had dropped Lindsay off at her home. 

“I kicked their ass. Probably killed a few of them. The rest ran off like little cowards.”

Gavin hugged Michael’s side, careful not to knock his cast. “I’m glad you’re okay Micoo.”

“Me too..” Michael rested his head against Gavins, totally exhausted. “Hey …Why the fuck was our science teacher at the penthouse?”


	38. The Assignment

“I can’t believe you killed my baby.” Michael said quietly, holding what remained in his shaking hands.

“…Michael.” Jeremy did his best not to laugh. “It was a bag of flour.”

“That’s not the point! That was mine and Lindsay’s baby for the week!” Michael had been thrilled to have been teamed up with Lindsay for the assignment. It was his chance to prove that he could be responsible and that he wasn’t just a jerk with anger issues. Unfortunately their new ‘baby’ had barely lasted an hour in the penthouse.

“I’m sorry!” Jeremy responded. “But I broke Rays DS and needed to make him cookies to make up for it!”

Michael sighed. “Now what the fuck am I supposed to do?”

“Just…. buy a new bag of flour?” Jeremy suggested.

“….You’re a fuckin’ genius.” Michael replied seriously. “You’re paying though! You can’t just kill peoples kids Jeremy.”

“Okay! Okay!” Jeremy replied, laughing under his breath.

“Can you get me one too!” Gavin chimed in, stealing one of the cookies.

“What happened to yours?” 

“Hit it like a pinata.”

“…Why?”

“To see if it looked cool in slo-mo.” Gavin reasoned, biting into the cookie. “I’ll show you the video later.”

“Did you tell Meg you were doing that with your baby?” Michael arched an eyebrow.

“Oh God no. Don’t tell her. She’ll literally kill me.”


	39. Somewhere That's Green

When Ryan made the permanent move into the penthouse, he brought a surprising amount of plants along with him, mostly cacti and other dangerous looking greenery. 

“Oh cool! Is that a Venus fly trap?” Gavin asked, his finger heading towards the ‘mouth’ of the plant. 

A knife arched through the air, just missing Gavin’s ear. It was embedded into the wall behind Gavin; a warning shot.

“Don’t touch it.” Ryan warned as he placed cacti on the windowsill.

“But-”

“No.”

“What if-”

“No.”

“But Ryyyyan.” Gavin whined. “They’re meant to be touched. I wanna see it close.”

“Yeah? And I want it to stay alive. Do you have any idea how much bacteria is on your fingers? I almost lost him once because of my cousins sticky fingers, I’m not going to let it happen again.”

“Him?”

“Audrey.” Ryan explained, gesturing to the plant.

“…That’s a girls name.” Gavin stated, confused. 

“….. Sit down. We’re watching Little Shop Of Horrors.” Ryan stated, digging the DVD out of his suitcase. 

Gavin happily fell onto Ryan’s bed, ready to watch whatever Ryan had picked out for him. “Do you name all your plants?”

“Yes.”

“Why?” 

“Why do you name animals?”

“…. Hm.” Gavin replied, stumped. “Why do you have so many?”

“A lot of them I grow because I can use them as ingredients for poisons.”

“… You’re a weird guy Ry.”

“Thanks.” Ryan chuckled, pressing play.


	40. Dan The Man

Gavin and Dan had been practically inseparable as children. Wherever Gavin went, Dan was sure to be close by. But Dans’ parents started to notice worrying behaviour. Whenever Dan spent time with Gavin, he often got hurt in some kind of ‘experiment’. It was never anything more than scrapes or small cuts, but they didn’t want things to escalate and made the decision to send Dan away to another school, separating the reckless pair. Eventually his parents came to the conclusion that Dan was better off in a military school.

In his teenage years, Dan begged his parents to let him attend a normal school. After years of persuading, they eventually relented.

Gavin was brimming with excitement when he heard the news.

Dan was coming home.


	41. Straight Ace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy Pride Month!!
> 
> I'm also running a writing/art challenge this month on my tumblr (OrphanBrigade). So be sure to check that out if you want to write for the AU! This months theme is the Beach

It was all anyone at school could ever talk about, especially in the boys locker room. Every conversation seemed to be about sex and Ray was starting to get sick of it. 

So, during a discussion of how they lost their virginity, Ray pretty much tuned out until the attention was suddenly on him.

“So?” Alex, one of the football players, prompted.

“So what?” Ray responded.

“Have you done it yet?” He asked with a sly smile.

“God no.” Ray laughed. “Not interested. I literally give no fucks.” 

“…Are you gay?” Kolby, another jock, asked. He was looking at Ray as though he had just sprouted three heads.

“Are you a moron?” Ray countered. 

“Fuck you!” Kolby stood up, enraged.

“No thanks.” Ray smirked. “Like I said, not interested.”

The jock grabbed Ray’s shirt, pulling him towards his face. “Listen here you little-” 

“We got a problem here?” 

Ray sighed with relief as he spotted Michael appear in the doorway. It was almost as though Michael had some kind of spidey-sense for when his brothers were in trouble. 

“This doesn’t have anything to do with you Jones.” Kolby warned. “We’re just going to teach the little freak here some manners.” 

“Yeah?” Michael responded calmly, slowly walking towards them. “Well, let me offer a little lesson of my own.” His hand curled into a fist and it smashed against the jocks jaw. “Don’t. Fucking. Touch. My brothers.” Michael stated, punctuating each word with a kick to Kolby’s ribs. 

Michael spun around to look at Alex, who was watching with a horrified expression. “Problem?” 

“No! Nope!” Alex pulled Kolby up from the ground, helping him escape. 

Michael paused, watching them scramble away. He glanced at Ray who looked genuinely upset. “…Wanna ditch last period and just head home?” He asked. 

Ray offered a small smile. “Love to.” 

Michael drove Ray back. The drive was pretty silent until Michael snapped, he always hated awkward silences.

“So, what’s your deal?” He asked curiously.

“Hm?” Ray looked over, bracing himself.

“Like the whole… no sex thing, you know? What’s up with that?”

“I’m just not interested in banging anyone. I don’t see what all the hypes about.”

“Maybe you just haven’t met the right girl yet?” Michael suggested, trying to help.

Ray sighed. He hated that response. “I’ve found a great girl. My girlfriend is perfect. I just don’t want to fuck her. She knows that and she’s cool with it. I don’t see why it’s such a big deal.” 

“It’s just… kinda strange I guess?”

“What’s strange is everyone fascination with what I do with my dick.” Ray pouted.

“You got me there.” Michael chuckled as they pulled into the garage. 

The pair walked into the penthouse, eyes widening when they realised Jack was home.

“…. Bit early to be finished school.” She pointed out. 

Michael launched into a lie. “Well, you see, there’s a teachers strike and-” 

“I had a shit day so Michael brought me home.” Ray interrupted. Knowing that the punishment for lying to Jack would be worse than the punishment for skipping classes. 

“What happened?”

Ray sighed and briefly recapped the events. “So basically, now the whole schools going to know I’m a sex-less freak.”

“You’re not a freak Ray.” Jack assured him gently.

“Sure feels like it.” He sighed. 

“….Are we in trouble?” Michael asked.

“…Not this time. But call us in advice about any skipped classes.”

“You got it!” Michael smiled, heading towards his room.

Ray took his opportunity to sneak off, hiding away in his room. 

He grabbed the sexuality leaflets that Ryan had given him out of his bedside drawer and collapsed onto his bed. He’d read them countless times but they seemed too… impersonal. More like fiction than fact. Ray needed real life accounts to make him feel less alone in his situation. So he grabbed his laptop and started to search.

Ray soon found Tumblr to be a wealth of information about the subject. There were thousands of real life experiences and even fictional characters who were asexual. Ray made a note to read more Archie (Jughead sounded awesome) and continued his search.

Unfortunately, there was almost double the number of accounts solely dedicated to trolling and a number of aphobic assholes spamming posts with hate. Ray closed his laptop, thoroughly disgusted by humanity. 

“Hey Ray.” Ryan broke the silence, appeared in his door way.

“What?” Ray sighed, lying on his bed apathetically.

“Got you a present.” 

A plastic bag hit Ray in the chest and he sat up, offering Ryan a puzzled look. 

“Just open it.”

Ray pulled out a soft, purple hoodie, just like the one he had worn as a little kid.

“You know, purple is the colour for asexuals.” Ryan stated knowingly.

Ray chuckled, pulling the hoodie on over his t-shirt. “Thanks Ryan… I love it.” 

“And we love you too Buddy.” Ryan smiled. “Come on out when you feel up to it. We can watch the Bee Movie.”

“I’d never pass up a chance to watch that masterpiece.” Ray announced as he followed Ryan, his troubles briefly forgotten.


	42. Straight Ace [Part 2]

“A family meeting?” Geoff asked with a bemused expression.

“That’s what I said.” Jack nodded.

“Ray can’t call those!” Geoff protested. “I’m the head of the family! Only I can call family meetings!” 

“It’s important.” Jack explained impatiently. “Just get your ass into the living room.”

Geoff sighed and followed Jack out of the office. He found Ryan, Michael, Gavin and Jeremy sat on the couches facing Ray. Ray was dressed in a new purple hoodie, Geoff smiled as it reminded him of when Ray was a little kid and would wear his hoodie like a safety blanket. 

He also noticed that Ray was stood in front of an old-school flip board. “Where the hell did you find that old relic?” Geoff laughed.

“Not important. Sit down.” Ray demanded. 

Geoff chuckled, amused by the role reversal, and sat next to Jeremy. 

“Family. It’s important that you all know; I’m asexual.” Ray turned over the first piece of paper, which just had a large ace of spades drawn onto it. “Some of you already know, but I want to get it out in the open. If you have any questions, now’s the time.” He flipped the page again, revealing a piece of paper which just said ‘Q and A’. 

“Yeah, I got a question…The fuck’s going on?” Geoff asked, thoroughly out of the loop. 

Jack hit him in the ribs with her elbow. 

“Basically, I like chicks romantically. But I do not want to bang or be banged.” Ray explained. “It probably shouldn’t be a massive fucking issue, but here we are.”

“Ray, you don’t know that about yourself yet. You’re too young.” Geoff tried to explain.

“How come the others can know that they’re straight, but I can’t tell that I’m ace?” Ray countered. 

“… I guess.” 

“You should be pleased. It all works in your favour. I won’t be getting any STD’s and I won’t get anyone pregnant. I’m the ideal son now.” 

Jack laughed under her breath.

“How long’s this been going on?” Geoff asked.

“Months. Ryan knew. Then Jeremy at prom. Then Michael and Jack. … Sorry Gav.”

“It’s okay Ray.” Gav beamed cheerfully. “We should have a coming out party!” 

“Is that a thing people do?” Jeremy asked.

“I don’t know but it’s an excuse for pizza!” Michael interjected.

“Typically, the ace community is associated with cake.” Ryan informed them knowledgeably. “So we should get cake too.”

“I’m on it.” Jack smiled, pulling out her phone. 

While the others excitedly rambled about the party, Geoff stood up and walked over to Ray.

Ray tensed up. Unsure what was happening.

Geoff wrapped his arms around Ray, pulling him in for a hug. “Thanks for telling me Ray.”

“Sure thing.” Ray smiled, relaxing into the hug.


	43. Part Of The Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Violence and Blood

Michael was outnumbered. Admittedly, it was his own fault for picking a fight with the entire football team. 

He managed to knock three guys out, but another five had pounced on him. Like cutting off the head of a Hydra Michael mused, although he would never admit to knowing anything about ancient mythology (he just liked the fight scenes and gory war stories).

Michael hit the ground hard. A boot was hurdling down to his face but he was saved at the last moment as his attacker was tackled away. He watched through broken glasses as Jeremy wrestled with Kolby.

Dooley Ex Machina. 

“What the…?”

“You need to get the fuck up.” Jeremy stated, grabbing Michael’s arm and pulling him up.

“I’m fine. I can kick their asses right now.”

“You’re covered in blood!”

“Not my blood!” 

While they were arguing, two of the linebackers tackled Jeremy, knocking the wind out of him as he crashed into the pavement. 

The pair eventually managed to escape the fight. Jeremy grabbed Michael’s arm and sprinted away while most of their assailants were knocked out. Luckily, Geoff was out driving and spotted them duck into an alley way. He pulled up and leaned out of his window.

“Get in losers!”

Jeremy pushed Michael into the backseat and jumped into the passenger side. “Thanks Geoff.”

“The fuck happened to you two?”

Michael was badly bruised, his glasses shattered and small scraped littered his face and arms. Jeremy wasn’t much better off, his back ached and it felt as though had broken a rib. 

“You get into scrapes like this often?” Geoff asked curiously, he was used to Michael getting into fights. But Jeremy had always seemed like a goodey-two-shoes. 

“I try to avoid it.” Jeremy shrugged. “But I’m used to being hit. So that doesn’t really bother me.”

“How’s that?” Geoff looked into the car mirror to glance at Michael who had fallen asleep in the back. 

“My dad was a drunken ass.” Jeremy explained with a small shrug. “That’s why I live alone now. I’ll take loneliness over getting the crap kicked out of me any day.” 

“Say no more.” Geoff nodded. “My old man was the same. He was a real prick too. Michael’s parents were like that too. Real pieces of shit. He ran away from them as a kid to avoid getting hit again.”

“…Wait, the’s not your kid?” Jeremy asked, he had been a little confused about the family structure in the past but had never though to question it. He just assumed that the Lad’s were all Geoffs and that they had different mothers. 

“….You think my boys are related?” Geoff arched an eyebrow. “Have you seen them?” He laughed. “They’re all adopted. Not exactly legally, but the point is they’re mine now.”

“Sounds kinda creepy.” Jeremy pointed out. 

“I can see that.” Geoff nodded. “It’s the best place for them though. Way better than where they were before.” 

Jeremy nodded in understanding. “You seem like a great dad.” He told Geoff honestly.

Geoff couldn’t respond. He was too busy trying not to tear up. 

The eventually reached the penthouse. Michael instantly fell onto the couch, curling up to get some rest.

Geoff patted Jeremy’s shoulder.“Your room’s down the hall and to the right.”

“My… my room?”

“Yeah.”

“….Am I concussed or something?” Jeremy asked, not following the conversation at all. 

“Kid, do you wanna stay here or not?”

“Sure! Yeah, sorry, thanks?” Jeremy responded, still confused by the sudden turn of events

“Get some rest Kid. You’ve got school in the morning.”


	44. Part Of The Family [Part 2]

“Well….” Jeremy started nervously. “This is where I live.”

“Used to live.” Gavin corrected with a cheerful smile.

Jeremy laughed. It was the day after Geoff had offered him a room at the Fake AH penthouse, so Jeremy and the three Lads had gone to his place to pack up his belongings. 

The apartment was nothing special; cramped rooms which always smelled like Chinese food thanks to it’s position on top of a local take out. 

“So, this is…” Gavin started, trying to compliment the place. He jumped as a mouse trap snapped into action.

“Terrible.” Michael finished for him. “It’s fucking terrible.”

“Yeah.” Jeremy laughed. “But it’s the best I could afford.”

The only appealing part of the place was the walls which Jeremy had painted himself. Big swooping designs which brightened up the otherwise dark living space. 

Ray opened up the cupboards in the kitchen to investigate but found them mostly empty, only housing instant noodles and energy drinks. “Wow.” He commented, closing the cupboard door. “Your diet is worse than mine.”

“And yet, I’m still healthier than Matt.” Jeremy chuckled, opening a suitcase. “Just dump everything in here. It shouldn’t take too long.” 

Gavin headed into Jeremy’s bedroom, grabbing an armful of clothes. “These are terrible Little J.” He observed, tossing them into the suitcases. The clothes were style-less and well worn. The jeans were torn and ripped, Gavin suspected that it was from wear and tear as opposed to being aesthetically dishevelled. “We need to take you on a shopping trip. Meg would love that.” 

“I can’t exactly afford a whole new wardrobe.”

“Good thing I know Geoffs credit card details then.” Gavin chuckled. “He never notices. Or if he does, he never says nowt.”

“You don’t have to do that.” Jeremy protested, tossing a few art supplies into his bag.

“Yes I do. We can’t have a member of our crew dressed like a hobo. It would ruin our street cred.”

Jeremy chuckled. “Thanks.”

“What the hell is this?” Ray asked, carrying a threadbare teddy. It was missing an arm and an eye, and was decorated with a faded purple ribbon around it’s neck.

“You leave Rimmy Tim out of this.” Jeremy replied, snatching the bear from Rays hands and stuffing it into his backpack.

“You have a teddy bear?” Michael hid his mouth with one hand, trying not to laugh.

“Well, yeah.” Jeremy responded defensively. “My gran was the only decent member of my family. And this is the only thing she gave me before she died. Of course I’m going to keep it.”

“That’s cool.” Ray nodded. “We’re still going to tease the fuck out of you though.”

“I accept that.” 

Packing didn’t take long, Jeremy didn’t own much so it all easily fit into his suitcase and backpack. As he unpacked everything into his new room at the penthouse, he looked up to find Gavin stood in the doorway.

“You ready?” The Brit asked vaguely.

“Ready for what?”

“Shopping trip, duh. Megs waiting outside, come on!” 

“…okay?” Jeremy followed Gavin out of the penthouse and into the elevator.

“You’ll need to go shopping for heist gear too. You know? Guns, body armour, all that junk. But Michael and Ray can help you with that one. They know all the specs better. I’m just here to make you look good.” 

Gavin, Meg and Jeremy spent hours trailing around the mall to replace his wardrobe. Jeremy’s personal favourite was a bright purple cowboy hat. Purple and orange was his favourite colour combination, and even though Meg thought it looked incredibly tacky, she helped him hunt down some new clothes to match his desired aesthetic. 

After hours of shopping, they eventually sat down at a fast food place to refuel and chat.

“He can be quite oblivious sometimes.” Meg commented, gesturing to Gavin. “He hasn’t noticed that I changed my hair to purple yet.”

“It was purple yesterday.” Gavin interjected, a bemused look on his face.

“It was not. I dyed it last night. Yesterday it was sky blue.” 

“It looks really cool.” Jeremy commented. “I’ve always wanted to dye my hair green.”

“Why haven’t you?”

“It costs money.” Jeremy chuckled. 

Meg glanced at Gavin before whipping out her phone. “Hey Chelsea. Yeah, I’m great. Can you book a friend of mine in? As soon as possible?… Oh, that’s great.” Meg beamed. “Thanks a lot. see you soon.”

“…What was that?” Jeremy asked.

“I’ve booked you in with my stylist. Your appointments in half an hour.” 

“I can’t afford a fancy stylist! I’ve always just cut my own hair.”

“That explains a lot.” Meg commented. “But don’t worry, this ones on me. My weekly allowance more than covers it. We’ll get you greened up in no time.”

“You’ll look like the Hulk.” Gavin gasped.

“The Hulk has black hair.” Meg pointed out. 

“Pretty sure he’s all green.”

Meg typed into her phone bringing up a series of images of the Hulk. In the majority of images, the green giant sported black hair. Only a few images showed a dark green and even then that was almost black. “Never doubt me.” Meg smirked, putting her phone away. 

Gavin laughed. “Hey, I may be an idiot, but I’m your idiot.” He smiled happily, looking like a love struck puppy. 

They returned home late, Jeremy was exhausted from all of the shopping but was delighted by his new bright green hair. For the first time in a while he actually looked forward to looking into a mirror. 

He fell asleep shortly after returning to the penthouse. But his rest didn’t last long. It never did. 

He jolted awake, sighing when he realised that he was drenched in sweat. He quickly changed into an old pair of pyjama bottoms and headed into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. On his way he found Michael lying on the couch, tossing a football into the air and catching it absentmindedly.

“…Sup.” Jeremy said, not sure if Michael wanted to be disturbed.

“Couldn’t sleep either?” Michael caught the ball and sat up to look at Jeremy.

“No, it can be pretty hard most nights.”

“I hear that.” Michael nodded knowingly.

“…Geoff said you had kinda a rough childhood before you met him.”

“Yeah.” Michael shrugged. “My old man was a son a bitch who liked to hit me around to feel manly. And my mom was too in love to notice that he was a grade A dick.”

“… But you still feel safe here?” Jeremy asked, sitting down on the couch next to Michael.

“Of course I do… Don’t you.”

“I don’t know… It kind of feels like a trap to be honest.” 

“What do you mean?” 

“It kind of feels like… the calm before the storm? You know?” Jeremy explained, gesturing vaguely with his hands. “Like when my dad would stop drinking for a week or so and everything would be nice and quiet. But then he would relapse and BAM! everything would be worse than ever. I mean, I barely know you guys. And sure. Things are great now. But that never lasts. Not with me anyway. What if everything turns to shit and I’m worse off than before.” Jeremy was frantically rambling, barely pausing for breath. “And being in a gang like this has got to draw some attention. What if I’m on the news? I’ll lose any chance of a scholarship. It could ruin my life. And what if my parents see it? What if they track me down because of all this. I don’t want to see them again. God, I-…” Jeremy couldn’t finish his sentence, his breath caught in his throat and his panic had reached it’s full potential.

“Hey, it’s okay.” Michael wrapped an arm around Jeremy’s shoulder reassuringly, pulling him closer. "You’re safe now. We got you.“ 

“I’m sorry…” Jeremy sighed, resting his head against Michael’s shoulder. 

“Don’t be. I know exactly what it’s like. Honestly, I’d probably still worry about my parents finding me if they hadn’t been killed.”

“They’re dead…?”

“You don’t hurt an Fake AH kid and survive.” Michael chuckled darkly. “Doesn’t stop me from dreaming about them though.” He admitted. “But they can’t hurt me anymore. And no-ones going to hurt you. I can promise that.”

“Yeah…?”

“Yeah. Anyone touches you I’ll beat the crap out of them.”

“….Thanks Michael.” Jeremy smiled weakly. 

“Yeah, yeah. You tell anyone we cuddled and I’ll deny it.”

Jeremy laughed. “It’s a secret I’ll take to my grave.”


	45. Part Of The Family [Part Three]

When Jeremy first moved into the penthouse, he would eat anything that he could get his hands on. Often eating so much that he felt sick later. But he never regretted it.

“Kid’s gonna eat me out of house and home.” Geoff laughed. “I don’t know how he has the appetite.”

The three Lads stared at Geoff with a range of confused expressions. 

“Well duh-doy.” Michael responded. 

“Of course he’s hungry.” Gavin added.

“What do you mean?”

“He couldn’t afford much food when he lived on his own.” Ray explained. “So he didn’t eat much.”

“And when you’re starving and finally get to eat, you eat as much as you can!” Gavin continued, sounding like he was talking from personal experience. 

Geoff suddenly remembered when he met Gavin. In those first few days, he had taken Gavin to McDonalds and the small boy had eaten seven happy meals before running to the bathroom to throw up. 

He thought about how Michael would always grab the biggest portion of food as a child, ramming it down his throat before it could be taken away. 

He thought about how Ray would always hide food anywhere he could; in his backpack, his toy chest, under his pillow. He’d been like a squirrel storing nuts away for winter.

Geoff was struck by just how much Jeremy reminded him of his boys. Without a word, he headed over to Jermey’s new room.

“Hey kid.” He started, knocking on the open door.

“Hey.” Jeremy replied, looking up from his sketchpad.

“What are you doodling?” Geoff asked curiously.

“Just a little thank you gift…” Jeremy explained, embarrassed to have been caught before he was finished. “You know, for letting me stay here.”

Geoff looked over at the drawing, smiling when he realised it was a picture of him, Jack, Ryan and the three lads. “That looks great. But you’ve forgot someone.”

“I have?” Jeremy looked down at the drawing, counting the figures.

“Yeah, Dummy. Where are you?”

“Oh! …I…”

Geoff laughed. “You’re family too now. I’ve called dibs on you. So draw yourself in and we’ll get that put up on the fridge.”


	46. Candy Store

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Gun Mention
> 
> Note: This was originally posted in Baby Years, but I'd forgotten that Mica was introduced in the High School Years!

“We need weapons. Lots of weapons. What’s the best you can do?” 

Mica smirked, leading them to her car. “Come on. I’ll take you to the Candy Store.” 

Ryan hummed the tune from Heathers for the duration of their ride into town. It was starting to drive Geoff and Jack crazy. But Mica loved it.

“Honey whatcha waiting for?” She sang under her breath as she parked the car. “Step into my candy store.”

“You know…. I thought Candy Store was some dumb metaphor.” Geoff commented as he looked at the building in front of him. “But this is, in fact, a store filled with candy.”

“Well we don’t exactly label the buildings ‘weapons stash’.” Mica laughed as she unlocked the front door. “That’s just inviting a break-in.”

She led them through the candy store, ignoring the fact that Ryan was obviously stealing lollipops and storing them in his leather jacket, and took them down into the basement. They were soon faced with a large vault door.

“That’s more like it.” Geoff smirked. 

Mica quickly punched in the code.

“You know all your dads passwords?” Jack asked curiously. 

“He’s not exactly inventive about them.” Mica explained with a shrug of her shoulders. “It’s always my brothers birthday.” She pushed the door open to reveal a treasure trove of weapons. “Help yourself. Daddy doesn’t keep stock records. So you can take as much as you can carry.”

“What’s your price?” Geoff asked suspiciously.

Smirking, Mica replied. “Let me go with you on the heist.” 

“No way!” 

“Suit yourself.” Mica shrugged, closing the door.

“Just let her come along.” Ryan rolled his eyes.

“But she’s a girl!” Geoff protested. 

Jack hit him across the back of the head. “Of course you can come along Mica.”

Mica beamed, and let them back into the vault. 

Ryan lit up like a kid in a candy store. He walked past all of the guns and explosives and instead reached for a set of katanas. “I could be like Deadpool.” He gasped quietly. 

“They’re not exactly great heist weapons.” Jack pointed out.

“Honestly Jack, right now I don’t give a fuck about the heist.” Ryan explained bluntly as he slipped the swords into his belt so that he could carry more. “This is the best day of my life.” 

Ryan left the vault that day with a variety of swords, daggers and sais and spent the next day hanging them all in his room at the penthouse. 


	47. The Vagabond and Rimmy Tim

“Hey…Ryan.” Jeremy started nervously. “Can you help me with something?”

“Sure. What is it?”

“Just some college applications…”

“…You want to go to college?” Ryan asked curiously.

“Well… yeah. I’ve been saving up for all the application costs. And I can’t really afford the tuition yet, but if I get enough scholarships then maybe I’ll be okay. I just need really good applications. You know?” 

Ryan smiled, holding out a hand for the papers. “Let me see then.” 

Jeremy smiled gratefully, passing Ryan his applications. “I actually have another question for you too…” 

“What is it?” Ryan asked, not looking up from the papers. 

“…whats up with the mask?”

“I needed it when I started being actively involved in heists. So that my parents wouldn’t find out what I was up to. I used the name Vagabond and I hid my face in order to keep my families separate.” 

“So your parents don’t know?” 

“They found out… It wasn’t great.” He admitted.

“But you still wear it …?”

“I do. It became a persona for me… It makes crew activities much easier.”

“A persona…” 

“You could come up with one if it helps you out?” Ryan suggested, sensing that what he said had struck a chord with Jeremy. 

“Yeah…”

“You need more charity work on your applications.” Ryan commented, passing the papers back to Jeremy. “It looks good when you apply to colleges. They love that stuff. Megs family can hook you up. They run a few of the homeless shelters around here." 

"That would be great.” Jeremy smiled. “I’m not sure I’ll have the time with work though…" 

"You haven’t quit yet?" 

"Why would I?" 

Ryan laughed. "Because you’re in the Fake AH Crew now. The pay is better than any job you could have." 

"Oh thank god. I hated that job.”


	48. Truth Or Dare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Don't try this at home kids]

The first night Dan was back in the city, it just so happened that Geoff and Jack were away.

“Ryan can we have a party.” Gavin practically begged, eager to welcome Dan back with a big celebration. 

“No.”

“Aw come on!” He pleaded. “It’ll be the best way for everyone to meet Dan properly.”

“It’ll get out of hand. It always gets out of hand.”

“I’ll be one hundred percent responsible for anything that happens. I swear.”

“Can I get that in writing?” Ryan arched an eyebrow. 

“Sure!”

“Okay then. But I’m going out that night. I don’t want to see whatever you get up to.”

“Thanks Ry!”

Dan was the kind of person who could get along with anyone. He was cheerful, friendly and borderline flirtatious at all times. Gavin could never tell when it was serious and when it was just for fun. He laughed when Dan flirted with Mica but was surprised when he acted exactly the same with Jeremy. 

“You guys want to play a game?” Lindsay suggested, pouring shots for everyone. 

“What kind of game?” Jeremy asked, taking one of the shots. 

“Well, there’s spin the bottle?”

Michael shook his head. “Given that half of the party is guys that I’m related to, I’ll pass on that one.”

“How about we keep the bottle, but play truth or dare with it instead?” Gavin suggested.

“As long as I don’t have to kiss any dudes.” Michael nodded as the group formed a circle around the bottle. He reached for the bottle, spinning it around to find his victim. He smirked as it landed on Gavin. “Truth or Dare, Bitch.”

“Dare?” Gavin responded, already regretting the choice of game.

“I dare you to get some slices of bread from the kitchen them, and dunk them in water for twenty seconds.”

“…Um, what kind of a dare is that?” Lindsay asked with a perplexed expression, watching Gavin reluctantly fetch the bread and a large bowl of water.

“Trust me.” Michael smirked. “This is going to be great.” 

Gavin lasted an impressive five seconds before he started to gag. “I can’t do it Micoo!!” His face wrinkled up as he dropped the bread. “I’ll vom’!” 

Michael laughed triumphantly, proud of himself. 

Dan patted Gavin on the back. “It’s okay, B.” 

“Uuugh.” Gavin shuddered as he reached for the bottle and spun it. 

While he was distracted, Meg cleared away the water and damp bread, making sure that Gavin wouldn’t spot it later on and start gagging again.

“Jeremy!” Gavin smiled. “Truth or dare?”

“Um, Dare I guess?”

“I dare you to….. climb to the roof from the balcony!”

“…Are you fucking crazy?”

“What? You can’t do it? Me, Ray and Micoo have all done it before. And I figured that with you’re gymnastic skills you’d be even better than us.”

Peer pressure hit him hard, and instead of doing the sane thing and declining, Jeremy headed to the balcony. Jeremy carefully scaled the outside of the penthouse, clinging for dear life. 

“You’re doing great!” Dan cheered him on from the balcony where they were all watching.

Jeremy made the mistake of looking down to reply. “….Is this a bad time to tell you about my fear of heights?”

“Oh my god.” Mica intervened. “Come down then!”

“Kinda frozen to be honest.” 

“Just slide down! You didn’t go too far.”

Jeremy carefully slid back down to the balcony, heart pounding in his chest.

“Good job.” Dan laughed, patting Jeremy on the shoulder as they all returned to the living room.

Still out of breath, Jeremy spun the bottle around. His mind raced as the bottle landed in front of Michael. 

“Bring it on.” Michael stated confidently. “Dare me.”

“I dare you too…. Kiss your crush!” He announced. Michael had done a similar thing to him at a party with one of their school friends and it had been an insanely embarrassing event (he was still apologising to Macey who hadn’t seen the dare and had been incredibly surprised by the kiss). It was time for revenge.

Michael instantly leaned over to kiss Lindsay, who beamed happily as a result.

“Didn’t I tell you guys?” He smirked, completely unfazed. “We’re dating.”

“….Dammit.” Jeremy muttered to himself.

“My go again.” Michael chuckled, spinning the bottle. “Ray?”

“Dare?”

“Lick the doorknob on the bathroom door!”

“Gross. Give me truth instead.”

“…. Did you break my x-box last month?”

Ray was silent for a moment before standing up and walking over to lick the bathroom doorknob instead of responding to the question.

“You son of a bitch!”

Ray sat back down and passed the bottle to Lindsay who was sat next to him. “You can have my go. I hate coming up with these dares.” 

Lindsay grinned as she span the bottle. As it landed on Mica she realised that she would be have to come up with something pretty generic as she had never met the other girl before the party so didn’t know what weaknesses she could exploit. 

“Dare.” Mica smiled challengingly. 

“Kiss the hottest person in the room.” Lindsay demanded, curious to see what her relationship with the boys was. 

Mica surprised everyone in the room by moving over to kiss Meg. “What?” She asked when she realised everyone was staring at her. “She’s clearly the hottest.” 

“Are you…?” Gavin tried to ask, surprised. 

“Just because you kiss someone doesn’t make you gay.” Michael rolled his eyes, he sounded suspiciously like he was talking from personal experience. 

“I’m bi. But I want to hear more.” She carefully spun the bottle, rigging it so that it was guaranteed to land on Michael. “Do you have any experience kissing guys?”

“I didn’t pick truth.” Michael challenged, folding his arms across his chest defiantly. “Give me a dare.”

“I dare you to tell me if you have any experience kissing guys.” 

Michael sighed. “Just once.”

“WHAT?!” Gavin squeaked. 

“It’s not like that.” Michael rolled his eyes. “It’s some guy from school. We were hanging out and he must have gotten the wrong signals and tried to kiss me.”

“Who was it?” Gavin gasped. 

“I’m not going to out him. He’s a good guy, you know? Just not my type. We’re still friends.”

Lindsay smiled fondly, kissing Michael cheek. 

Michael shrugged as though it was no big deal and span the bottle to land on Meg.

“Truth.”

“Have you ever done anything illegal?” Meg was the only member of their little group who wasn’t involved in their heists, he was curious to see what laws normal people would break.

“Oh, all the time. Want to see?”

“Sure.”

Meg spun the bottle around to land on Jeremy. Confusing everyone with how abruptly the conversation seemed to end. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth, but-”

“What’s your credit card pin?”

“I’m not telling you that! Give me a dare instead.”

“Fine. I dare you to give me your credit card pin.”

Jeremy sighed in defeat, quickly scribbling down the number and passing it to Meg so that no-one else could see.

Meg smirked, pocketing the number. She was never going to use it, she just wanted it to prove a point. “And that is how you commit credit card theft.” She turned to Michael who laughed at the exchange.

The game soon came to a close and the teens started to interrogate Dan about life in a military school. 

“Oh yeah, a classmate gave me this.” Dan stated, lifting his trousers to display a tattoo of a small red balloon on his calf.

“Sweet ‘Up!’ reference.” Ray commented jokingly.

“They’ve got tattoo guns in Military school?” Meg asked sceptically. 

“You don’t need them.” Dan shrugged. “You get the same effect with an electric toothbrush, a needle and some ink.”

“….That’s real fucking stupid.” Mica commented.

“I’m in.” Michael grinned. “Give me one.”

By the time Ryan came home, Michael was already branded with a set of cat whiskers against his ankle. Dan was just about to press the vibrating needle against Rays finger when he was hit in the face with the umbrella Ryan had been holding.

“I was gone for like three hours.” Ryan stated, exasperated. “What the hell?”

“He was going to give me a Gingerbread man.” Ray explained plainly. “You know, like in Shrek?”

“Geoff is going to be so pissed.” Ryan sighed when he realised that Michael had already been tattooed. “End of party. Everyone’s grounded.”

“You can’t ground us.” Lindsay protest.

“No, but I can tell you to get the fuck out.”

The girls and Dan obliged. Purely because Ryan scared the crap out of them.

“Anyone care to explain?”

“…. We may have gotten a bit too drunk.” Gavin admitted.

“And high.” Ray chimed in.

“And high.” Gavin nodded. 

Ryan pressed his palm against his face. “Go to bed. Geoff can deal with you in the morning when you’re sober or hungover.”


	49. Dear Ray Narvaez Jr

Ray was used to people speaking over him. It was a standard part of his everyday experience. Especially at High School. Whenever he spoke, it just felt like no-one was listening. Ray was easily forgotten. He was always on the outside of the social circles, always out of place.

His family could be the same sometimes. They didn’t mean to be. Ray knew that. But his brothers had so much more energy than him. They made so much more noise that Ray was easily drown out.

Sometimes the noise became unbearable. Everything would irritate him and he just needed to escape.

When that happened, Ray would grab his keys and drive away from the city to get some peace and quiet. He always left a note so his family would know where he had gone when they realised he had disappeared. They always understood.

Ray parked his car and decided to climb a nearby tree.

He always liked high places. For whatever reason, his thoughts were clearer at a higher altitude; especially when he had the sun shining on his face.

He sat alone for a few hours, relishing in the peace and quiet. After a while his phone rang. He swore when he noticed the name that had flashed on the screen.

“Hey….” He answered tentatively.

“Hey. Did you forget?” Rays girlfriend, Tina, replied. Her voice sounded tense and irritated, which was understandable given that Ray was supposed to pick her up half an hour ago for a date.

“I’m sorry, I just got kind of … overwhelmed and had to get out of the city for a while.”

“…What do you mean?”

Ray frowned. He realised that Tina wasn’t like his family. Their relationship was relatively new and she didn’t know all of his weird habits yet. She didn’t understand. “It’s just… something that happens to me sometimes.” He tried to explain, he had never had to verbalise it before. His family had figured everything out when he was a kid, so there had been no need to communicate it. “I get stressed out and need to be alone for a while.”

“Wouldn’t you rather talk to someone about it?”

Ray laughed. “God no. I’ve learned that people don’t really listen when I tell them my problems. I don’t ever try any more. I slam the brakes on before I turn the key.” He chuckled sadly at his analogy. “I don’t want them to see the worst part of me… The frightened, anxious mess that I really am.” Ray figured he would never be able to tell Tina all of this in person. For some reason, being alone and speaking to her over the phone was helping. “Especially in school. There’s no slipping up if you slip away. So I’ve got nothing to share.” Ray shrugged. “I’ve got nothing to say.”

“Ray. I-”

Ray didn’t hear the response.

He shifted his weight and felt the branch crack below him.

It gave way.

Ray was sent crashing into the ground.

The pain shot through him and his arm went numb. Ray assumed he was going into shock. It had happened countless times now. Ray was used to blocking pain out. He struggled to sit up, reaching for his phone which was miraculously unbroken.

“Tina?”

“What the hell happened?”

“Nothing. Nothing. It’s alright. I’ll call you back.” Without waiting for a reply, Ray hung up and immediately called Ryan.

“Hey Ray. What’s up? ”

“I need you to come pick me up…” He admitted.

“What happened?” Ryan asked, his voice instantly more serious.

“I may have broken my arm?”

“Jesus Ray! Are you in danger?”

“No… I just fell out of a tree.”

“…God dam it Ray. I’m coming to get you.”

“Thanks Ryan…. Hey, when you’re falling in a forest. And there’s nobody around. Do you ever really crash? Or even make a sound?” Ray asked, attempting to lighten the situation by making a joke.

It didn’t take long for Ryan to get to him. Ray was taken to hospital and returned home with a plain white cast encasing his arm.

The whole family signed his cast. But the biggest signature was Tina, who signed her name with a heart dotting the ‘i’.

Ray stared at his cast throughout his English cast, his mind racing. He couldn’t help but wonder if he’d scared Tina off. Now she knew that he was even weirder than before. It might have ruined everything.

He looked up as a small rock tapped the window next to him. Tina was outside, wandering around in her free period. A soft smile crossed Ray’s face as they waved to each other through the window. Maybe things were okay.


	50. Here's Looking At You, Kid

Gavin was cheating.

Jeremy had spent enough time with the teen to know all of his tells. 

That slight quirk of his lips, just barely hiding a smug grin, revealed it all.

Jeremy dropped his card onto the pile. “Here’s looking at you, Kid.” He winked.

“Awh!” Gavin whined incoherently when he realised that he had been completely screwed out of his win. “You’re having a laugh.”

“Damn right I am.” Jeremy replied, giggling to himself. “You can’t cheat at Uno you dumb Bitch.”

“Screw you.” Gavin pouted, collecting the cards to count the final score. “You won.”

“I did.” Jeremy beamed. “Which means, you owe me a punishment.”

“…Shit.” Gavin had been hoping that Jeremy had forgotten all about their bet. “So what’s it going to be?”

“You have to wear a skirt to school tomorrow.”

“YOU WHAT?”

Gavin felt ridiculous. 

Luckily Meg had offered to drive him to school that morning, for emotional support. He went to her place early in the morning and was rewarded with a selection of skirts from Megs wardrobe to chose from. 

“You don’t think this is weird?” Gavin asked, shimmying the elasticated skirt over his hips.

“I thinks it’s cute.” Meg replied with a warm smile which calmed Gavin’s nerves. 

He walked into school with his head held high. He had always found that it was best to fake confidence if you didn’t have any. He knew he had to make it look like it was 100% his decision to put on a skirt that morning. 

He was most concerned about Michael seeing him. It was the only opinion he really cared about (other than Megs). Michael could be devastatingly brutal at times. 

Michael barely looked up when Gavin walked into the room.”Oh, hey Leslie.”

“My name isn’t Leslie… Who’s Leslie?” Gavin asked with a bemused expression.

“Oh, well, I figured since you were dressing like a girl, you needed a girls name. You look like a Leslie.”

Before Gavin could respond, Ray and Jeremy walked in.

Jeremy started laughing so hard tears formed in his eyes. “Oh man. I didn’t think you’d actually do it!”

“Nice mini-skirt.” Ray commented. 

“The skirt is supposed to be this short.” Gavin pouted, tugging the hemline down as much as he could.


	51. Rise Of The Risinger

Gavin was starting to notice a trend.

Every time they started set-ups for heists, he would be mugged. 

It always happened when he least expected it, but at some point he would be knocked to the ground, and some knob-head would run off with his wallet. 

That wasn’t the only similarity though. 

From what Gavin could tell, the mugger never changed. It was always a lanky, long haired man with a cocky smirk. 

Eventually, Gavin decided that he’d had enough and decided to play around with his mugger. 

He started by swiping a die-pack from a bank during a heist. He sat in his bedroom, fiddling with fake bank notes and setting it up so that as soon as his new wallet was opened, the ink would explode. 

As expected, the next heist they did, Gavin was thrown to the ground and his wallet was swiped from his jacket pocket. Gavin rolled his eyes but didn’t chase after the mugger. He simply let him leave with the booby-trapped wallet. 

The next day, Gavin was insanely lucky. 

He was sat at a local cafe when he spotted a a pair bright green hands wrapped around a coffee mug. The man was long haired and lanky, just like his frequent mugger.

Gavin smirked to himself and slipped into the booth with the mugger. “How’s it going mate?”

The man’s eyes widening in surprise as he realised who was sat in front of him. “Hi, erm, I can explain.” 

“I’d love to hear it. I don’t have a lot of time to though so make it quick.”

“I was hired by some crew.” The man explained nervously. “They send me times and locations and get me to swipe your wallet. I don’t know why.”

“Which crew?” Gavin interrogated.

“I don’t know.”

“Who’s your contact?”

“Some guy called Mogar?”

“Who- ……. I swear to god. That bastard.” Gavin face palmed. “I’m going to kill him.”

“So…are we good…?” The mugger ventured.

“Yeah.” Gavin sighed. “What’s your name anyway?”

“Jon.”

Gavin nodded, getting up from the booth. “Well, excuse me Jon. I have to go kill my brother. Good luck getting the ink off.”


	52. Checkmate

“You are not.” Gavin laughed, holding his sides as he shook with the laughter. 

“I am!” Jeremy protested, obviously becoming annoyed by Gavins reaction. 

“What’s going on?” Ryan asked, curious about what had caused such a dramatic reaction from Gavin.

“He said- He-” Gavin struggled to talk he was so preoccupied with laughing.

“Shut up!” Jeremy protested, a faint pink blush staining his cheeks.

“He said what?” Ryan asked, folding his arms across his chest and leaning against the wall. 

“Tell him!” Gavin grinned.

“All I did was tell him that I was a chess champ as a kid!”

“… Excuse me?” A brief smile pulled on Ryans top lip. 

“It’s not that funny!” Jeremy rolled his eyes.

“It would be funny. If it was true.” Ryan challenged.

“It is!” Jeremy’s voice broke, causing Gavin to double over laughing.

Ryan arched an eyebrow. “Play me then.”

Jeremy’s eyes went wide. “What?” 

“You heard me. Winner gets a favour.”

Jeremy paused for a moment before smirking. “You’re on.” 

Ryan confidently set up the board and Gavin stood behind him. Now that his giggles were gone, he was eager to watch the match. 

It only took Jeremy twenty minutes to beat Ryan.

Ryan stared down at the board, mentally retracing his steps to figure out where he went wrong. Eventually, he looked up at Jeremy who looked oddly nervous. “So… What’s your prize?” 

Jeremy gulped. “… I want you to help me plan a heist.”

Gavin gasped, surprised that Jeremy was planning his own heist. 

Ryan smirked in response. “You got it.”


	53. All That Glitters (Part One)

Ryan had no-one to blame but himself.

He never should have mentioned it.

But for their latest heist, they needed someone to go undercover at a glitzy, socialite fundraiser ball. 

Jack instantly dismissed Ryan as being unsuitable for the role.

“It’s nothing personal Ryan. But it’s the same social circle as your family. Your parents might even be there themselves. There’s too much risk that you’ll be spotted. 

“Ah, but you’re forgetting that it’s a themed event.” Ryan explained casually. “And this year it’s masquerade. Everyone will be wearing masks.” 

“Still-”

“I’m the only one with the training to pull this off.” Ryan rolled his eyes. “I’m the only one who knows how these events work. I know the posture, the greetings, the dances-”

“Dances?” Jeremy interjected.

“…Well, it’s a ball. There’s always dancing.”

Jeremy struggled to contain his laughter at the mental image.

“You can dance Ry?” Gavin laughed, thoroughly amused. 

“Yeah, I do it all the time with your girlfriend.” Ryan countered impassively. 

The room erupted in laughter and jeering from the Lads (and Geoff) at Gavin’s expense. 

“Okay, okay!” Jack managed to regain order. “Ryan, You’ll be our way in then. As long as you wear a mask the whole time.”

“And not the skull mask.” Michael added, still snickering.

“You got it.” Ryan nodded, a determined look on his face.


	54. All That Glitters (Part Two)

Ryan had his signature mask. The black skull which represented his darker side; the Vagabond. 

But over the years he had accumulated a number of different masks from various themed heists (usually the ones orchestrated by the lads). He opened the drawer which housed them all and searched for something which would be appropriate for the masquerade. 

He smirked to himself when he spotted the wolf mask. The theme of the ball was fairy-tales, so he would fit in perfectly as the Big Bad Wolf.

A knock on his bedroom door broke his train of thought, he dropped the mask into his bag before opening the door.

“You’re going?” Meg asked, without prelude.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Ryan responded coyly. 

“Cut the crap Ry. Gavin already told me.” Meg walked into the room, dropping down to sit on Ryan’s bed. 

“Okay, yes. I’m going. But I’ll wear my mask the whole time so no-one should notice me.”

“They’ll notice a big guy like you all alone. You’ll draw attention to yourself. You need some arm candy.” Meg flicked her hair over her shoulder.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’ll go with you. Help you blend in more and draw the attention away from you.”

“I don’t know…”

“It’s not that dangerous, right? Gavin didn’t explain the whole plan to me, but it seems simple enough. And I’ll be there anyway, my families dragging me along. I might as well do something fun while I’m there.”

“It’s not a game Meg.” Ryan warned tensely. 

“I know that. But it’s still exciting!” 

Ryan weighed up the pros and cons. He figured that the mission had a very low risk factor. He couldn’t envision many ways for it to become a dangerous situation and even if it did, he was confident in his abilities to keep Meg safe.

“Fine. But I’m in charge.”

“You got it boss.” Meg winked and saluted before jumped up and leaving, eager to tell Gavin the news.


	55. All That Glitters (Part Three)

It wasn’t a comfortable environment for Ryan, but it was certainly a familiar one.

The large ball-room twinkled with warm light radiating from the chandeliers. A string quartet sat up on the stage, their music mixing with the sound of chattering party attendees. Everyone was dressed to impress, expensive tuxedos, dazzling ballgowns and, most importantly, their masquerade masks. 

Meg fit in perfectly. She wore a tight fitting black dress, with a blood red cape draped over her shoulders. A red and black masquerade mask concealed her eyes.The Little Red Riding Hood to his Big Bad Wolf. “Come on.” She smirked, eyes glinting with mischief. “Let’s go dance.”

Ryan and Meg has always been each others dancing partners. Their parents had been close and had encouraged the two to spend time together, especially during formal events. They were well trained in dance and familiar with each others movements and timing. It was second nature at this point. 

Ryan rested on hand on Megs waist and held her hand with the other. He laughed as Meg started to hum the theme song from Beauty and The Beast, “I’m not that kind of beast.” He pointed out as they swayed across the dance-floor, his voice somewhat muffled by his wolf mask.

“You’re not a beast at all.” Meg retorted. “Now be quiet and let me have my Disney moment.”

As the next song started to play, Meg tensed. “Your parents are here.”

Ryan didn’t look.

“Have you seen them? Since…. you know?” Meg asked, vaguely alluding to Ryan’s college graduation party, when a rival gang had burst into his family’s home looking for the Vagabond. Ryan had revealed his criminal identity, dealt with the attackers, then ran. He was surprised nothing had gotten out to the press. He assumed his parents had paid for everyone’s silence. 

“No.” Ryan replied bluntly. “They haven’t tried to get in touch either. No calls, texts, emails. Nothing. I’m just giving them space.”

“If you want to talk to them…”

Ryan shook his head. “It’s fine Meg. Don’t worry about it. Worry about the job the hand.” 

“Right.” Meg nodded. “Find the banker. Steal his key…. What banks still use keys?”

“The key isn’t to the bank. It’s to his home.”

“… I don’t think I want to know any more.”

“Probably not.” Ryan nodded in agreement. “Come on, let’s mingle.”


	56. All The Glitters (Part Four)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Guns

While Meg was distracted by an old friend, Ryan took the opportunity to find them something to drink. He soon found a bar and waited to be served. While he waited, Ryan took a moment to survey the party, looking as casual as he possibly could. He hadn’t seen his target yet, but it was only a matter of time. 

“James?” A familiar voice jolted Ryan out of his quiet surveillance. 

A quick glance to the side confirmed what Ryan had feared. His father, Thomas Haywood, was stood right next to him.

Luckily, Ryan’s face was totally disguised by his wolf mask. “…No.” He mumbled, doing his best to disguise his voice.

“Ryan.” Thomas continued, knowing that, for some reason, his son preferred to use his middle name. 

“I think you have the wrong person.” Ryan stated, trying not to panic.

His father smiled fondly. “Ah, I’m sorry. It’s just you remind me of my son. He ran away from home recently and I see him everywhere.”

“…Oh?” Ryan prompted, morbidly curious.

“Yes. We’ve tried to give him his space, but it’s difficult, you know?” Thomas took a long swig of his drink. This surprised Ryan who had never really seen his father drink alcohol before. “You try to do the best you can but sometimes its just… not good enough.” 

“What happened?” Ryan found himself asking. He knew that he should have left the second he spotted his parents, but he found himself rooted to the ground, desperate to hear more. 

“He was a good kid.” Thomas expanded, ordering another drink. Ryan wondered how many he had consumed already. “Top of his class. Active in extra curriculum stuff. Not very sociable with kids his age. But kids are jerks. I don’t blame him.”

Ryan suppressed a chuckle.

“I don’t know what happened. Our good little kid started doing bad things… Now he’s a criminal. I don’t know what we did wrong.”

“It’s not your fault.” Ryan assured him.

“How can you be so sure?” Thomas challenged, swallowing his drink in one swift swig.

“Some people are just… like that.” Ryan tried to explain. “There’s no reasoning behind it. No tragic backstory which lead to a life of crime. It’s just… who they are. Nature over nurture I suppose.”

“I wish we could have done more…”

“… Try reaching out to him. Maybe if you talked, you’d understand more about him?”

“You-” Before Thomas could finish his thought, the firm hand of his wife pressed down on his shoulder. “Martha.” 

“Come on Dear.” She responded firmly, clearly not impressed with his drinking. “We really should be leaving.” 

“Have you met my new acquaintance here? Mr…?”

“Perrault.” Ryan responded quickly.

“Well, Mr Perrault.” Ryan’s mother flashed him an apologetic smile. “We really must be going.” 

Everyone jumped as a barrage of gun fire could be heard at the main entrance. Ryan sighed when he spotted Craig, one of the heads of the Screw Attack Crew, with one arm around a hostage. He was using his free hand to wave a gun around menacingly. “Everyone listen up!” Craig demanded. “This is a robbery. I want every cent of your money or the girl here gets it.” He pressed the gun to the temple of the girls head. Ryan snarled when he realised that it was Meg that was being threatened. 

“Someone has to do something.” Martha Haywood gasped quietly. 

“I’m on it.” Ryan stated confidently, striding towards the hostage situation. He had no plan. But he knew that he wasn’t going to let anyone harm a single hair on Meg’s head.


	57. All That Glitters (Part Five)

Ryan confidently pushed his way through the fearful crowd until he was face to face with the gang leader, who now had two other members of his crew flanking him. 

“Let her go.” Ryan warned them firmly.

“Oooh.” Craig smirked. “Look boys. It’s the big bad wolf.” 

The crew snickered as menacingly as they could.

“Wonder who’s under the mask.” Chad, another member of the Screw Attack Crew, mused aloud. “Probably some spoiled, preppy little rich kid. If this your girlfriend, Wolf-boy?” He asked, gesturing towards the captive Meg. 

“I’m not a Wolf-Boy.” Ryan pulled his mask off to reveal his painted face. He found that even the face paint was enough to install fear into people who knew about Los Santos criminals. Which is why he had decided to apply it, even under the masquerade mask. He let the mask drop to the floor. “I’m the mother-fucking Vagabond.” 

There was a collection of gasps from the party goers. Even some shrieks from people who found the Vagabond to be far more of a threat than the crew currently holding them hostage.

Before Craig had a chance to speak, an explosion rocked the side of the building and chaos broke loose as the attendees of the party yelled,screamed and clambered to the exits. 

“Son of a-” Ryan darted forward, breaking Craig’s nose with a quick jab and yanked Meg away from him. “Time to leave.” He pulled her through the panicked crowd, pausing only when he spotted his parents cowering behind the bar.After a moment of inner debate, Ryan raced over to them. “Get up.” He demanded. 

“What..?” Ryan’s mother started to ask. 

“If you stay here, the next explosion could kill you. Get up and follow me.”

Ryan led Meg, Thomas and Martha Haywood out of the ballroom and onto the streets of Los Santos. 

“What about everyone else?” Ryan’s mother asked quietly.

“I’m not Batman. I can’t save everyone. We have to get out of here. That explosion could cause one hell of a chain reaction.”

The escaped into a relatively empty alleyway. The presence of the Vagabond scared away any would-be muggers. 

“Ryan… sweet-heart. I think we need to have a little talk.” Martha started, somewhat nervously.

Ryan sighed before taking a wet wipe out of his pocket. In one swift motion, he removed most of his face paint. “Come on then, lets get coffee.”

“I’ll leave you guys to it.” Meg stated, prepared to walk away.

“No.” Ryan wanted the support, but was too stubborn to admit to it.”I’d rather keep an eye on you. You know, in case the crew comes after you again.”

Meg gave Ryan a small smile. “Sure thing. I know a great coffee place a few blocks from here.” She informed them in a cheery tone. “Follow me.”


	58. All That Glitters (Part Six)

Ryan exited the cafe and let out a heavy sigh of relief. He hadn’t realised that he had been holding his breath, but now his lungs felt like they were ready to collapse.

The time spent talking to his parents had been tense but comforting and Ryan left the cafe feeling a little less alone. 

Realising that he hadn’t brought any means of transport with him, Ryan started the long walk back to the penthouse.

The silence of his walk was broken as his phone vibrated, letting him know that Gavin was calling him. “Y’ello.”

“Hey Ryan, um...” Gavin sounded nervous. Ryan couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but it was clear that Gavin wanted to ask him something. “Could you-..” Gavin stopped himself before finishing the sentence.

“Jesus Christ.” Ryan rolled his eyes. “Spit it out already.”

“Could you teach me how to dance?” 

“.... Excuse me?”

“Well, Meg invited me to this big party her parents are throwing her for her birthday. And I want to impress her. And her parents. So I need to fit in. And I figured that would be easier if I could, you know, dance and stuff.”

Ryan smiled. “I can teach you. I’ll be home late tonight, but we can have a class in the morning if you want?”

“Sounds great! Thanks Rye.” 

That morning Ryan awoke to find the whole family (plus Michael’s girlfriend Lindsay) waiting for him in the living room.

“....Is this some kind of intervention?” Ryan asked suspiciously. “Because I’d rather die than give up diet coke.”

Michael laughed. “No dumb-ass, it’s a dance lesson. Right?” 

Ryan looked at Gavin, his eyes narrowing into a glare.

“It’s not my fault!” Gavin squeaked. “Michael found out and told Lindsay. Who told Jeremy. Who told Ray. Who told Geoff and Jack. And, well, here we are.”

“Ready to learn.” Jack added with a smile.

“... You all want to learn how to ballroom dance?” Ryan clarified. “After laughing at me for knowing how.”

“Pretty much.” Ray confirmed with a sly smirk. “We’re fickle like that.”


	59. Don't Stand So Close To Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A companion piece to chapter 72 of Orphan Brigade

“Didn’t I tell you to fuck off?” Michael rolled his eyes, his voice was tense and gruff. 

“I’m keeping you company silly.” The girl squeaked in reply, an overwhelmingly cheery grin on her face.

“Ugh.” Michael’s nose twitched, his mouth lifting in a grimace. He really wanted to hit her. A light tap. Nothing to violent. Just something to scare her away. But Geoff’s voice echoed through his head. You don’t hit girls.

“Hey!”

Michael’s head snapped up as Lindsay came into view. “Linds’!”

“Who’s your friend?” Lindsay asked, an amused smile on her face. 

“I’m Heather.” The offending teen explained, wrapping one arm possessively around Michael’s bicep. “I’m just keeping Michael company for a while.”

Michael tensed. Uncomfortable with the touching.

Don’t hit a girl. He told himself instantly. Don’t do it.

“Hm.” Lindsay responded, an unimpressed look on her face. “I’m Lindsay. Michael’s girlfriend. If you don’t get your greasy little mitts off him, I’ll knock your face into the ground. Got it?” 

The girl squeaked in surprise. “Jesus! Okay, fine.” She spun around and stormed away from the pair. 

Michael sighed in relief. “Oh my god thank you. She was driving me crazy. I though I’d have to chew my own arm off to get rid of her.” 

“Why didn’t you just shove her off you?”

“You can’t shove girls.” Michael explained, as though it was obvious.

“….Are you fucking kidding me?” Lindsay questioned. 

“What?” 

“Of course you can shove girls!”

Michael blinked, a confused look on his face.

“…” Lindsay pinched the bridge of her nose. “If that was a guy, what would you have done?”

“Pushed him off. Maybe break his nose?”

“Right! So you should do that to girls too! We’re no different.”

“But…”

“No buts!”

A car pulled up near then, Lindsay sighed with the relief when she spotted the driver. Griffon was picking the lads up from school that day. Geoff’s part-time girlfriend liked to drive the lads around whenever she was in town as a way to spend a bit more time with the boys. 

Lindsay raced over when she spotted her. “Griff!”

“Hey Kiddo.” Griffon nodded, taking off her sunglasses as she exited the car. “What’s up?”

“Tell Michael he can hit girls!” Lindsay begged.

“….Context?” Griffon glanced over at Michael questioningly. 

“Geoff always told me not to hit girls.” Michael shrugged his shoulders, confident that he was in the right.

“….Sweetie.” Griffon started, shaking her head. “Geoff means well. And you know I love him. But he’s also a massive idiot. Girls aren’t some fragile subsection of the species that need to be protected. They’re not made of glass. They’re just people. So you treat them like you would treat any other person.”

“…. What?” Michael was clearly baffled.

Griffon chuckled, patting Michael on the shoulder. “If you have good reason too, and would do the same thing to a boy, then it’s okay to hit a girl.”

“Told you.” Lindsay smirked. 

“…You’re blowing my mind.” Michael stated simply.

Griffon laughed. “Jack’ll probably tell you the same thing. Never listen to Geoff. Always get a second opinion. Now get you’re asses in the car. I don’t want to be late for dinner. Jack’s set up a ton a BBQ equipment on your balcony and I’m starved.” 

Michael and Lindsay jumped into the backseat. Michael was silent for a moment before lightly punching Lindsay in the arm.

“… What was that for?” Lindsay laughed.

“Just testing the waters.” Michael relied casually, a content smile on his face.


	60. PSL Syndrome

Gavin loved Pumpkin Spiced Lattes. They were his favourite hallmark of Autumn and would consume them whenever he had the opportunity.

He made sure that the world knew about it too. He would proudly display his Starbucks cups and would brag on all forms of social media about the delicious coffee goodness that he was partaking in, despite the relentless teasing from his brothers about the “girly” drink. 

Jeremy loved Pumpkin Spiced Lattes just as much. But he wasn’t nearly as confident as Gavin about the matter. He would always place his order using an app, so that he wouldn’t have to say it aloud and would always act like he was picking it up on the behalf of someone else. Once the drink was collected, he would quickly pour the liquid into a plain travel mug and dispose of the Starbucks branded cup. Secrecy was key.

Normally, his plan worked. No-one ever questioned what he was drinking, so there was never any need to lie. 

Until one day when Michael walked into the room, claiming that he was dying of thirst. He snatched the mug from Jeremy’s hand and took a desperate gulp of the liquid. 

“…What the fuck is that?” Michael asked, wrinkling his nose.

“Um- It’s… That’s-…” Jeremy spluttered, not sure how to explain himself.

“Let me try!” Gavin took the mug from Michael to test it out. Gavin smirked. He knew what the contents were, but knew that Michel would never recognise the taste. He made the split second decision to lie on Jeremy’s behalf. “Jeremy!” He gasped dramatically. “Mixing alcohol with coffee? You’re insane man!” 

Jeremy looked at Gavin with a bemused expression before figuring out what was happening. “Oh… yeah. I know it’s kinda weird. But I’m part Irish, you know. That’s how we do it.” 

Michael laughed. “Doesn’t taste too bad. You’ll have to make me one sometime.” He waved and headed off to his bedroom.

“S-sure thing!” Jeremy called after him, sighing in relief when Michael closed the door. “Thank you.”

“Anything for a fellow PSL addict.” Gavin grinned, winking at the boy.


	61. Into The Dungeon

Once a week, Geoff, Michael and Ryan would leave the apartment without a word. Gavin and Ray never really thought much of it. They were use to it and had their own distractions. Jeremy however, was curious about what they were up to. After getting no clues from Ray or Gavin, Jeremy eventually plucked up the courage to ask just before Geoff left one evening.

“Hey, er, where you headed to?” Jeremy asked as casually as possible.

“Oh just a thing…” Geoff replied vaguely. “… Actually, we could use another body. You free tonight?”

“Er, sure?” Jeremy agreed without much thought into what he had actually agreed to do.

“Great!” Geoff beamed, get your coat kid.

Geoff and Jeremy met up with Ryan and Michael in front of an apartment block downtown. Jeremy was starting to get nervous. This was bound to be dangerous. Especially with both Michael and Ryan, the most violent members of the crew, there. 

“Let’s go then.” Michael led the way into an elevator.

Jeremy realised that he hadn’t brought a weapon. What an idiot. This was probably going to end in a shoot out. Most likely someone owed the Fake AH Crew money, and they were dropping by to collect. And Jeremy was unarmed. Shit.

The calm, neutral elevator music only made Jeremy’s tense mood worse.

The group exited the elevator and headed to one of the doors. Geoff rapped his knuckles against the door quickly. 

Jeremy was surprised to find that the occupant was actually happy to see them.

“Hey guys.” He smiled. “Come on in. We’re already set up.”

“Hey Uncle Gus.” Michael nodded, hanging his leather jacket on a coat hook.

“Uncle….?” Jeremy repeated, confused by the cheery atmosphere.

“Who’s the kid?” Gus asked curiously.

“My new son.” Geoff beamed. “Can’t you see the resemblance?”

“Like two peas in a pod.” Gus laughed. “What’s your name kid?”

“Jeremy…” 

“Nice to meet you. I’m Gus, and that guy over there is Frank.”

Jeremy’s eyes widened when he spotted Frank, a bald man wearing a long, hooded cloak, carrying a goblet. “….is this a cult?” He blurted out before he could stop himself.

Michael laughed loudly. 

“… Did you not tell him what we’re doing?” Gus arched an eyebrow.

Geoff thought for a moment. “…. I did not.”

“Oh my god.” Gus laughed. 

Ryan passed Jeremy a small bag and a sheet of paper. “You ever played Dungeons and Dragons before?”

“… Excuse me?” Jeremy blinked.

“Dungeons and Dragons.” Ryan repeated. “That’s your character sheet. Well, it’s Griffons character sheet. But she’s out of town, so we get different people to come play her when she’s gone.” 

“…….Alright…?”Jeremy sat down, utterly confused. 

“Alright then.” Frank smiled as he sat at the head of the table, he started to recap the events of their last play through. It seemed that Jeremy’s character had woken up with amnesia, which helped to explain why he didn’t understand anything that was going on around him in the game. He soon got into the swing of things though and found that he actually enjoyed playing as the half-orc barbarian. 

After the session was over, Geoff patted Jeremy on the back. “You’re a natural kid. We’ll have to have you as Orma’s substitute more often.”

“Yeah?” Jeremy nodded. “Sounds good.”

“Listen.” Michael pulled Jeremy to the side as the others started to exit Gus’ apartment. “Not that I care or anything, but if you tell anyone at school that I play D and D, I’ll kick your ass. I aint no nerd.”

Jeremy paused for a moment before laughing. “You got it Mogar. It’ll be our secret.”


	62. The A Team

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Competition prize for Sea241 on tumblr

It wasn’t unusual for the boys to find themselves in detention. It had become such a regular occurrence that they even had a regular seating arrangement. Jeremy would sit in the back corner with Ray and Michael and Gavin would sit in front of them. This made communication and note passing between the boys much easier. 

During one afternoon of detention, another student joined the group of delinquents. 

Jeremy vaguely recognised the other student, but couldn’t quite place their face. They wore very casual, androgynous clothing and their hair was shaved at the sides, the top part dyed a cool shade of sky-blue. They dropped down into the seat next to Jeremy and took out a biology textbook, flicking through the pages.

“So… what you in for?” Jeremy asked, trying to strike up a conversation. 

“Rebellion of gender norms.” 

“Cool, cool…. We set up like fifty stink bombs in the principals office.”

The blue haired student paused, and then laughed. “Why?”

“Standard teenage rebellion.” He explained. “I’m Jeremy.”

“Sev.” Came the simple response. 

“So what exactly did you do?”

“I tried to change my student record. My gender is wrong on it.”

“Oh… youre… a boy?”

Sev shook their head.

“Oh, sorry, a girl?”

Another shake of the head. 

“So if you’re not a boy… and you’re not a girl… then what are you?”

“I’m agender.” Sev responded casually. 

“… Like Jack?” Michael asked, glancing over at Gavin for reaffirmation.

“No, ya dope.” Gavin shook his head. “Jack can be both. She switches sometimes depending on how she feels. But ‘a’ means without.”

“Like asexual.” Ray chimed in. “Without banging.”

“Yes, I do believe that’s the scientific definition.” Jeremy chuckled.

“Let me guess.” Ray continued. “People ask what’s in your pants a lot?”

“All the time.” Sev rolled their eyes. 

Ray nodded his head knowingly. “I’ll never understand societies obsession with junk.”

Sev laughed in response. “Yeah, it sucks.”

“We should made a club.” Ray grinned. “The A-Squad.”

“…. Wouldn’t A-Team be better?” Jeremy suggested.

“… Shit. You’re right.” Ray admitted. “A-Team it is.”


	63. The A Team (Part Two)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prize for kickingrosie on tumblr

Mica didn’t visit the penthouse often, usually she would only go if the boys were throwing a party or if they needed her help planning heists. 

One day, after a meeting with Geoff and Michael about how many sticky bombs they would need to blow the doors off an armoured truck, she found Ray sat at the kitchen table, surrounded by various leaflets and books. She was about to walk right past him, but stopped as she spotted the rainbow flag on one of the leaflets.

“… Watcha doing?” She asked casually, slipping into the seat next to Ray.

“Making plans for the A-Team.” Ray replied simply.

“What’s that?”

“Well, it’s just me and Sev right now.But we’re making like an LGBT+ group at school.”

“Oh!” Mica beamed with excitement. “I can help you with that.”

“You can?”

“Sure I can. I’m the B.”

“The…. bitch?”

“… In LGBT, I’m bi.”

“Oh!” Ray exclaimed. “Right, lay it on me then.”

Mica laughed and told Ray everything he would need to know about setting up a LGBT+ group at his school. 

“So Sev can be in it too yeah?”

“Well, LGBT groups normally focus on sexuality, not gender. But there’s no rules saying you can’t support people like that. It’s actually a really nice thing to do.” She smiled. “If you need any help, just give me a call.” She patted Rays shoulder as she stood up and exited the penthouse, leaving Ray to his planning.

___

The first meeting was pretty quiet, with only Ray and Sev in attendance. They spent most of their time playing Mario Kart on the TV screen the school had provided for their little club.

Just as Ray won (for the third time in a row), another student entered the room. They wore a dark purple halter top and a long skirt which flowed around their ankles. 

“Hey, what’s up dude.” Ray nodded in greeting. “Or dudette. Or non-binary dude.” He added, covering all possibilities.

The student laughed. “I’m… well, I’m agender actually.”

“Nice.” Ray smiled reassuringly. 

“Same here.” Sev grinned like the Cheshire cat and lifted their hand for a high-five. “I’m Sev.”

“Joey.” The student smiled shyly, reciprocating the high five. “But my friends call me Wifi.”

“Yeah?” Ray tilted his head. “Why’s that?”

“I’m a hacker.” Joey explained simply. “I mostly use it to get onto peoples wifi or hot-spots. It’s pretty handy.” 

Ray smirked, a million ideas turning around in his mind. “This club could get a lot more interesting then. Welcome to the A Team”


	64. Fight Or Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Competition prize for flowersand-dinosaurs on tumblr

It was a simple job. Just Michael and Gavin holding up a continence store for a little bit of extra money (which they were planning to use for Jeremy’s birthday present). It was a straight-forward in-and-out job. Or at least, it would have been if someone hadn’t beaten them to the target. 

As they walked into the store, the spotted a young teen, about their age gesturing at the cashier with a knife. The boys short brown hair was mostly concealed by a beanie and he wore a mask over the lower portion of his face, so all that could be seen were wide, frightened eyes. Michael could tell instantly that this kid was in too deep and had no clue what he was doing. 

“Hey kid.” Michael stated as he moved closer. “You’re doing a real shitty job.”

The teen spun around to face him with the knife, ready to defend himself if need be.

Gavin shook his head admonishingly. “I bet you didn’t even check to see where the panic button was.” He glanced out the window as the sound of police sirens filled the street. “Yup.” He sighed. “We’ve gotta get out of here Micoo.” 

“Come on kid.” Michael grabbed the collar of the boys jacket and dragged him out the back entrance where they wouldn’t be seen. 

“What the fuck?” The boy pulled away when they were safely concealed in a back alley. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Saving your ass.” Michael retorted. “You’re freaking welcome by the way. Two more minutes and you’d be surrounded by cops.”

“I don’t need your help.” The teen snarled.

Gavin tilted his head curiously, something about the boy seemed familiar. He reached out and pulled the mask away from him face. “I knew it!” He beamed.

“What the hell?!” 

“You’re in my English class right?” Gavin stated, passing the boy his mask back. “Alan, right?”

“…Adam.” He reluctantly corrected. 

“What are you doing here?” Michael asked, keeping a close eye on the knife. The boy may be one of their peers but Michael knew better than to trust anyone who wasn’t a part of their family. One wrong word and Adam could start wildly stabbing at him or Gavin.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Adam responded defensively. 

“We can figure out that much.” Michael rolled his eyes. “But why? You shouldn’t be doing this shit alone.”

“No-one knows I‘m here…” Adam admitted. “My family need the cash, they’re really struggling right now. And this is the only way I can earn anything… I have to do this. And you can’t stop me.”

Michael and Gavin exchanged a look.

“We’re not going to tell you to stop.” Gavin assured him.

“…You’re not?” Adam looked up, surprised by the response. 

“No.” Michael folded his arms across his chest. “But we are going to teach you how to do it properly. Heisting 101.”

“Let’s hit the town!” Gavin cheered.


	65. The Golden Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, I went to RTX London, and they told the cutest stories about Gavins granddad. Including one where he called Gavin "The boy with golden hands".

Everyone had their own aesthetic or persona that made them unique.

Ryan was “The Vagabond”; the dark omen of death and destruction. Michael was “Mogar”; the fierce and brave warrior. Jeremy was “Rimmy Tim”, bold and brilliant. Ray didn’t really have a persona but that made sense for the sniper. He was the boy hidden by the shadows. 

Gavin was nothing.

One day, he decided that he needed to metaphorically level up and create his own persona.

He spent hour deliberating over what his theme should be. 

He didn’t have a single idea.

Sighing, Gavin took a tea break. When made correctly (unlike how his savage American family would make it) tea always reminded Gavin of his Grandfather, who would always have a pot of tea at the ready, no matter what time of day it was. 

Gavin smiled softly at the now faded memories. 

His ‘Nonno’ had always had a soft spot for Gavin. He had always praised the boy for his creative tendencies. calling Gavin “the boy with golden hands.”

It was like a light bulb appeared over Gavin’s head.

The theme of gold seemed to pervade his life. He had always had a preference for gold jewellery, even his phone was golden. And Gavin could very clearly remember one Halloween when Michael convinced him to dress up as King Midas, explaining that the man could turn anything to gold in one touch. 

Gavin grinned to himself as he finished his tea. He had found his new persona.

He would be: The Golden Boy.


	66. Family Bonds

“So what’s the deal with you guys?” Jeremy asked, leaning against the wall. 

The boys were all sat on the rooftop of their apartment building, they had hijacked all of the alcohol they could find and Ray had even brought his not so secret stash of drugs. They had lit a fire in a bin they found as a make shift camp-fire. Other than that their only lighting was the twinkling stars and the bright full moon.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Michael asked, arching an eyebrow and gauging whether or not he should be offended.

“How did you all end up together? I know Geoff took you in as kids, but I assume he didn’t go through an adoption agency.” Jeremy laughed.

“No shit.” Ray chuckled, clearly in a cheerful mood caused by his high.

“So what happened?” 

The trio of boys looked at each other uncertainly. They never really discussed life before Geoff and Jack, not even between themselves.

Michael shrugged, braver than his brothers. “I ran away from my parents, they were total shits. Dad knocked me around and mom let him.”

“Where did you live originally?”

“Jersey. Can’t you tell from the accent.” Michael joked. “I slipped onto a bus out of town and rode as far away as I could.”

“And that’s how you ended up in Los Santos?” Jeremy questioned.

“Yup. Got off the bus and saw some brats ganging up on this weedy looking British twat. I felt sorry for the weak little guy so I stepped in.”

“Micoo.” Gavin pouted. 

“What? It’s true.” Michael laughed, patting Gavin on the shoulder playfully. “Anyway I was fucking starving and Gavin said he could hook me up. I followed him home and Jack and Geoff just let me stay.” Michael shrugged. “Simple as that, really.”

“So Gavin already lived with Geoff and Jack at the point?” Jeremy asked, taking another swig from the bottle in his hand. 

Gavin nodded. “I was there first. Geoff caught me pick pocketing. When he found out I didn’t have a family, he took me in.” 

“What happened to your family?”

Gavin paused. “… I don’t remember much about my parents. I was moved to America to live with my Grandparents when they died. Car crash… I stayed there a few weeks. But there was a big fire…. They died in it and I didn’t have anywhere to go to. I had no other family there and hadn’t been around long enough to make friends. So I was all alone….” 

Jeremy was surprised, he’d never seen Gavin look so serious before. His tone was slow and sad.

Jeremy blinked and suddenly Gavin was back to his usual smiley self again.

“But I have a great family now. So I guess it all worked out.”

“I guess so buddy.” Jeremy smiled tentatively, clinking Gavin’s bottle with his own. “What about you Ray?”

Ray shrugged. “I don’t remember.”

“Anything?” 

“Ray had amnesia when he started living with us.” Gavin explained. “Ryan showed up after Michael, then after that we got Ray.”

“He found me feeding the squirrels at the park.” Ray laughed. “I didn’t remember anything but I knew that the squirrels could be trusted.”

Jeremy laughed. “You get real weird when you’re high, Ray.”

“He’s weird normally. Being high just means he talks more.” Gavin explained. 

“You are not wrong.” Ray smirked. 

“Must have been weird, growing up like that.” Jeremy commented.

“Not when you don’t know any different.” Ray shrugged.

“We’re way better off here. And so are you.” Gavin smiled warmly.

“It’s still kind of weird to be honest.” Jeremy admitted.

“You’ll get used to it.” Michael assured him.”There’s nothing to worry about, Geoff and Jack are good peope. Ryan too, once you get past the weird persona you find out he’s just a massive dork.”

“Isn’t that true of all of you?” Jeremy questioned.

“…You win this round Dooley.”


	67. No Homer

Michael had always loved Greek mythology growing up.

The stories were gory and bloodthirsty, filled with brave warriors and incredible beasts. 

His favourite ancient hero had always been Achilles. In particular, Michael liked his close bond to this best friend: Patroclus.

Michael could very easily image himself and Gavin in those roles. Himself as the fierce warrior prince and Gavin as the adoring best friend, who would stay by his side to the end.

Michael understood Achilles fits of rage and passion.

If anything happened to Gavin, he would burn the whole of Los Santos down to get revenge. Dragged the body of his killer around on a chariot was childs play compared to what Michael was capable of. 

He would occasionally bring it up when slightly drunk, one arm around Gavin’s shoulders, pulling him closer.

“You know they’re gay right?” Ryan mentioned casually one day, sipping from the can of diet coke in his hand.

“Who’s gay?”

“Patroclus and Achilles.”

“They are not!” Michael retorted instantly. 

“Think about it.”

Michael thought.

“….Aw, god damn it!” Michael yelled, storming off to escape the conversation and the guaranteed teasing that came along with the revelation.


	68. The Proposal

“What a dork.” Michael laughed as he wrapped one arm around Lindsay’s shoulders.

They were sat alone in Lindsay’s bedroom, watching ‘10 Things I Hate About You’. Michael had never seen the film before as it wasn’t exactly his favourite genre of film. But it was Lindsay’s favourite movie so he had agreed to suffer through it.

“Are you kidding me?” Lindsay responded, gesturing to Heath Ledge who was singing ‘I love you Baby’ from the bleachers. “This is like, the height of romance.”

“Seriously?” Michael scoffed.

“Seriously!” Lindsay replied, nudging Michael in the ribs with her elbow. “If a guy did that for me I’d die of happiness.”

“Huh…” Michael shrugged, leaning back to watch. He had been planning to do something romantic for Lindsay before the two of them graduated. 

He wanted to propose. But it was going to take a lot of planning. Lindsay could spend hours watching flash mob proposals, so Michael knew that he had to make it memorable. So maybe, this was the perfect opportunity to make her dream come true. 

It took weeks of planning and the enlistment of every member of his family but come graduation, Michael was finally ready.

He breezed through the graduation ceremony. After recieving his High School diploma, he escaped to the top of the bleachers where Ryan was waiting for him.

“You ready for this?” Ryan asked, passing him the ring box.

“Oh yeah.” Michael grinned, his body full of adrenaline. 

The ceremony came to an end. Students hugged their parents and thanked their teachers. Before anyone started to leave, Ryan hit play on the music. Gavin jumped up excitedly and took his phone out. It was his job to film the whole thing.

In planning this surprise, the FAHC had found one fatal flaw in the plan: Michael couldn’t sing. 

He sung along to music all the time. And would often sing when he was bored. But signing in front of people was a whole other nightmare. The last thing he wanted to do was fuck up the flash mob with his off-key singing. 

Which is why he had opted to lip sync it instead. 

“You’re just too good to be true. I can’t take my eyes off you.” 

Heath Ledgers voice rang out over the PA system as Michael stepped out onto the bleachers, doing his best to intimidate Lindsay’s celebrity crush. Meg had helped him prepare the choreography that he needed. 

Lindsay laughed when she spotted Michael. Totally smitten by the performance.

“ And let me love you, baby. Let me love you.”

As the song came to an end, Michael made his way to where Lindsay was standing and held her hands. Before she could say anything, he got down on one knee. The audience gasped collectively as they all realised what was happening.

“Lindsay. Will you marry me?” Michael asked, suddenly feeling quite nervous about her response.

“Of course I will you idiot.” She beamed, knocking him to the ground with an excited hug.

“She said yes!” Geoff yelled excitedly over the phone to Ray, who was in position behind the main stage with Jeremy.

Ray nodded to Jeremy and the boys started to light all of the fireworks they had brought with them, running from the scene before the first one shot into the air. 

The audience applauded as began to fireworks light up the sky. 

“Micooooo!” Gavin stopped the recording and sprinted forwards to join in the hug. He was soon followed by Ray and Jeremy who enveloped the happy couple. 

“Give them some room.” Geoff laughed as he and Jack approached the cuddle pile. He extended one hand to help Lindsay to her feet. “Welcome to the family Lindsay.”


	69. Camp Brigade: Epilogue Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the rest of Camp Brigade, check our Orphan Brigade (not the High School Years version. This is the sequel).

Once a week, Michael and Gavin would get a letter.

They would often squabble over who got to open it. Read it together.Then they would each pen a reply and send their letters off in one envelope.

This week, Michael won the fight over who would open the letter. He had Gavin pinned to the ground and was sat on the weaker boys back. 

“We missed Max’s birthday!” Michael exclaimed as he read the letter. “We’ll need to send him presents or something.” His eyes scanned the rest of the page and he grinned. “Don’t think we can top David’s present though.” Michael laughed as he passed the letter to Gavin. “Looks like the adoption paperwork finally went through. That perky piece of shit is Max’s dad now.” 

“He’s adopted now? That took aaaaages.” Gavin replied, reading through the letter himself. 

Michael rolled off Gavin. “That’s what happens when you adopt a kid legally.” He chuckled. “Unlike Geoff who just found some homeless kids and forged all the documents.”

“Technically, Ryan forged the documents.” Gavin pouted out.

Michael rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean.”

“Look at this!” Gavin grinned, pulling a photo of David, Gwen and Max out from the envelope. 

“So are he and Gwen like...together?” Michael asked.

“I think they’re more like siblings, you know? Like she’s Max’s Aunt now?” 

“That makes sense.” Michael asked, looking slightly confused as Gavin made his way to the kitchen. “What are you doing?” 

“I’m going to put this on the fridge!” Gavin beamed, affixing the photo of Max’s family right next to a picture of theirs. “What do you think?” 

“Perfect.” Michael nodded. “Now come on. We have to get birthday presents for Max!”


	70. Raised Expectations

“This is going to be hilarious!” Gavin grinned, talking in a whisper. 

He and Michael had prepared Jeremy’s bed so that as soon as the teenager fell asleep, they could jack it up so high that it practically touched the ceiling. 

Michael waved for Gavin to be quiet. They had to work slowly and patiently so that they wouldn’t wake Jeremy up while they were setting up their prank.

The boys talked in hushed tones and had to stop themselves from laughing at the thought of Jeremy’s reaction in the morning. 

Eventually, their work was finished and the boys snuck away, thrilled by their creation. 

In the morning, Gavin and Michael ate their breakfast together, chuckled every so often as they waited for Jeremey to come out of his room.

But he never did.

The boys finished breakfast. Got ready for school. And stood outside Jeremy’s door to wait. 

Still nothing.

“That’s it.” Michael pushed the door open and looked up to find Jeremy still in bed, eyes firmly affixed on the ceiling. “.... You okay Lil J?” Michael asked, confused by his reaction.

“Did I uh... Did I ever tell you about my fear of heights?” 

“...Aw fuck.”

“What’s wrong?” Gavin asked, peeking his head around the door.

“Looks like we’re skipping morning classes. We gotta get Jeremy down.”

“Thank you!” Jeremy squeaked, clinging to his pillow and adamantly refusing to look down. “Great prank guys.”


	71. Bad Omens

Ray was never a particularly superstitious person. Frankly it all seemed pretty dumb. But on Friday the thirteenth, he was vaguely aware that it was supposed to be an unlucky day.

He didn’t feel unlucky. In fact the first thing he did was put on a jacket he hadn’t worn for weeks, where he found a twenty dollar bill that he had completely forgotten about. 

“I guess today’s my lucky day.” He smiled to himself as he left the house. He had very important business to attend to today. He was heading to Matt’s house to pick up his latest stash. 

His phone buzzed in his pocket as he walked. He read through the text to find that it was a “chain letter” from Gavin. 

If you don’t send this on to five people in the next hour, you will suffer a terrible fate.

Ray rolled his eyes and typed out a response. “Chain letters are still a thing? I thought they died in the 90s.”

“Better safe than sorry!” Gavin replied instantly.

“You’re an idiot.”

Ray stowed the phone away in his pocket. He hadn’t noticed that as he’d been typing he had walked under some ladders that a window cleaner had propped up against the apartment block. 

As he cleared the ladder, the window cleaner knocked over his bucket of water, soaking Ray.

Ray blinked for a moment, completely shocked, then kept walking. If it had of been Michael or Gavin, they would have confronted the man about it. But Ray would rather avoid confrontation at all costs. And besides, it wasn’t too much further to Matt’s. 

Ray then spotted a black cat in front of him. He idly wondered if they were lucky or unlucky. He could never remember which it was supposed to be. 

The cat launched itself at his leg. Clawing and biting.

Definitely unlucky.

He eventually reached Matt’s apartment, soaked and bleeding slightly.

Matt opened the door with an apologetic expression. “I have bad news for you. My dealer didn’t come through, I wont get the stuff until tomorrow.”

Ray groaned. He was having the worst lucky today.

“… Do you want a change of clothes or something?” Matt asked, taking in Rays shabby appearance. “I was going to watch the Friday the 13th movies if you want to hang out?”

“….Sure.” Ray shrugged, stepping inside and closing the door.

The wall shook as the door closed, and a large mirror fell to the ground, shattering.

Matt chuckled. “That’s seven years bad luck you know?”

“Just kill me now.”


	72. Goldilocks' Secret

Jeremy liked his lab partner. Macey was like a calm oasis compared to his hectic life. After the barrage of noise he normally endured, her silence was a welcome reprieve.

This was partly due to the fact that she was Deaf and never made any noise, and partly due to her incredibly chill personality. There was never any drama with Macey. They would just chat about their interests (mostly by writing on her notepad. Jeremy was trying to learn ASL but it was a slow process) and getting on with their work. Every now and then, Jeremy would find himself staring at the dark scar which marred one side of her face, it almost looked like a lightning bolt that stretched from her ear to her cheek. Jeremy was fascinated by it, but would look away whenever she caught him staring. 

“You’re allowed to look at me.” Macey scribbled in her notebook, chuckling as she showed it to Jeremy.

“Sorry!” Jeremy signed, rubbing his fist against his chest, totally embarrassed to have been caught.

She started to write again. “I don’t mind. I’m used to it.” She shrugged as she showed him the note. 

Jeremy smiled apologetically. He attempted to sign “You…. car…me… home?” Before giving up and writing. “Do you want a lift home?”

Macey beamed. “Please.” She signed gratefully.

As they got in the car, Jeremy just managed to stop himself before he asked what kind of music she liked.

That would have been dumb.

The silence was odd. They couldn’t really talk because Jeremy couldn’t look at her for prolonged periods of time or use his hands. But the silence was nice. Calming.   
\---

Macey jumped out of the car, waved to Jeremy and headed up to her apartment. 

She was quite grateful that she had gotten a lift. She had a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in.

Opening her closet, Macey grabbed her work outfit and started to get changed. She tied her hair back and covered it with a wig. She finally sat down to do her makeup. This was the part that took the longest. She had to make sure that her scars were totally covered so that she couldn’t be identified.

The finishing touch was her contact lenses. One eye was a dark brown, the other a vibrant pink. It didn’t matter which eye was which. No-one ever noticed. 

Her wig matched her eyes, one side a wooden brown and the other a soft pink. Perfectly hiding her trademark golden locks.

With all her preparation done, it was time to go to work.   
\---

“Ah Neo! So glad you could make it.”

Macey rolled her eyes. Torchwick knew she couldn’t hear, but that never stopped him from talking to her as though she could. She could lip read a little but half the time she had no idea what he was saying. His ignorance was forgiven every time she got her cut of the money though. 

“I have a new little toy for us. You know those Fake AH brats who make it impossible to hold onto any territory in this cursed city?” Torchwick dramatically pulled a blanket away to reveal Jeremy, gagged and tied up. “I stole their new son.” He gloated, a cruel smirk on his face. “Oh the fun we’ll have with this one.”


	73. Your Idiot

Most of the time, Gavin was a pretty confident guy. But there were a few times when he felt completely out of his depth. 

Meeting Meg’s family was certainly one of those moments.

He’d made a complete and utter fool of himself. 

Meg had taken him up to her bedroom in an attempt to calm him down after the ordeal.

“I’m not good enough for you.” He sighed, falling onto the bed.

“That’s not true.” Meg retorted, taking a seat next to him. 

“It is. They’re so….fancy and sophisticated. And I’m just some street kid.”

“… What do you mean?” Meg asked, gently prompting him. Gavin never spoke about his past and she was incredibly curious about how he’d ended up in the criminal family. 

“It’s like…. you know in Aladdin, where he lives on the street. Then a genie helps him out. Then he gets together with a princess? Geoff is my genie.”

“And I’m the princess?”

“Obviously.” Gavin explained. “Look…. Geoff found me on the streets. And I’ve had a great life. But I’m not…classy. You know?”

“I don’t care about that.” Meg kissed his cheek. “So what happened to your parents?”

“They died… I don’t remember them. Which sounds shitty, I know. But i was too young too… Do you think they would have loved me?” He asked, sounding incredibly vulnerable.

“Of course they would have! Why would you ask that…?”

“Michaels parents didn’t love him…. Jeremy’s either.”

“Well…” Meg chose her words carefully. “Then it’s a good thing you all have each other. Isn’t it?”

Gavin smiled. “Yeah…” He wiped his eyes. “Sorry, I’m being an idiot.”

“You are not.”

“I am.”

Meg sighed. “Fine. But that doesn’t matter because you’re my idiot.”

Gavin chuckled, wrapping his arm around Meg. “Your idiot.”


	74. Can You Hear Me Now?

“Michael!” Lindsay clicked her fingers by his ear. “Are you even listening to me?”

“Hm?” Michael glanced up at her casually.

“I’ve been talking to you for the last five minutes.” She informed him, somewhat exaggerating the actual time frame.

“Didn’t hear you.” Michael shrugged.

Lindsay pouted. “Your’e deaf.”

Michael rolled his eyes. “No, you just talk really quiet. Come on, tell me what you wanted to say again.”

In truth, it had started to happen more and more to Michael. He would miss the first part of what people were saying and could only catch up when he really focused on the words. 

Most of what he heard was just a low hum. It was annoying at first, but he had learned to live with it.

Years of being close to explosives would do that to a guy. 

Luckily no-one in the family seemed to have noticed yet. Which suited Michael just fine. He didn’t want them to make a fuss like they always did.

Lindsay left and was quickly replaced by Jeremy who fell down into the seat next to him.

“So…. you can’t hear shit huh?”

Michael couldn’t decide on a response and just settled with: “….fuck you.” 

“It’s fine.” Jeremy assured him. “But if you need any help learning ASL or lipreading or something, I can help you out.”

“The fuck did you learn ASL?”

“Maceys been teaching me.” Jeremy beamed. “And I’ve watched a ton of videos on you tube. We can hold a really basic conversation now. It’s pretty dope.”

Michael chuckled. “I’m not quite Deaf yet, but I’ll keep it in mind.” He patted Jeremy on the shoulder. “Come on, let’s go, Geoff will kill us if we’re late.”


	75. Little Britain Hugs

Jeremy was not a great comforter.

He could help people get revenge.

He could give them semi-decent advice.

But comforting people in need was not his strong suit. 

Which is why when he heard Gavin crying in his bedroom, he had absolutely no idea what to do.

No-one else was home. He couldn’t get one of the others. And he couldn’t call them, he figured Gavin wouldn’t want a family-wide panic. He had to be discreet about this.

Jeremy very tentatively opened Gavin’s door. “Hey buddy…” 

No response.

Gavin was sat at the edge of his bed, with his back to Jeremy. His knees were pulled up to his chest and his shoulders were shaking.

“I’m coming in.” Jeremy informed him, keeping his tone light. He picked up a blanket and draped it over Gavin’s shoulders before sitting next to him. 

Jeremy said nothing. 

Gavin sniffed and leaned on Jeremy.

Jeremy gave him a small smile and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “It’s okay. I got you.”


	76. Jackpot

Ray pulled his hoodie up to obscure his face and slumped onto a park bench. Dropping a plain black briefcase next to him. 

He had already spotted his target; a middle aged woman wearing a tight fitting business suit. Ray had been studying her for about a week before finding that she always came to this park for a coffee during her lunch break. And more often than not, she sat at the bench next to him.

He waited patiently as she paid the vendor, fiddling with the buttons of his DS, even though the device wasn’t actually turned on. All he needed was the illusion of invisibility, with his head down and headphones in, no-one gave him a second glance.

The woman took her seat, placed her briefcase on the floor and immediately took her phone out to flick through messages. 

Right on queue, Gavin rocketed past of a skate board, slammed into a fence post and flipped over onto his back.

The plan has been purely for him to make enough noise to draw her attention, but this worked just as well. 

Ray glanced around to make sure no-one was watching him before leaning down to pick up her briefcase. 

Before the woman had even fully realised what had happened to the boy on the skateboard, Ray had gone. 

Ray was in a brilliant mood when they got home, Gavin less so as he’d been totally winded and needed stitches over his right eyebrow.

“Got it.” Ray beamed as he tossed the suitcase onto Geoff’s desk.

“Good man.” Geoff beamed, his hand went onto the lock. “Now, how to open it…”

“I got you covered.” Michael informed him seconds before bashing the lock with a hammer. 

“…Thanks Buddy.” Geoff chuckled as he opened the case. “Jackpot.” He grinned as he pulled out keys to the Maze Bank. “Get your masks boys. It’s time for a heist.”


	77. Unwelcome Visitors

Jeremy had left his biological family as early as he could. He just packed his bags and said goodbye to New Jersey, never looking back. 

He still kept in touch with his Aunt and Uncle, but only by email. He didn’t want them to know where he was, just in case his parents found out. The last thing he needed was them showing up in Los Santos. 

They exchange e-cards on holidays and his Aunt would keep him up to date with his cousins accomplishments. One was a mathlete, incredibly smart with a full scholarship lined up. The other was more sporty, his Aunt would happily inform him every time she won a national game. They were over achievers, the champions of the family. 

They never mentioned his parents; the black sheep. 

His mother and his aunt were sisters, they had always been close until his mother started dating her dealer. Things took a sharp downhill turn after that. And bringing a kid into the equation hadn’t exactly helped.

Every email from his Aunt ended with the same offer; he was always welcome to stay at their home back in Jersey. 

But Jeremy knew he couldn’t go back, the risk of seeing them again was just too great. 

One day, the email from his Aunt had a much more rushed tone.

Instead of the normal preamble and paragraphs of life updates, the opening message was short and foreboding.

“They know where you are. They’re heading to Los Santos tomorrow.”

Jeremy slammed his laptop shut. “Shit. Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

“What’s up?” Michael asked, glancing up from his Switch.

“Nothing, um- Fuck.” Jeremy responded, shaking a little.

Michael put the games console down. “What is it?”

“I… I don’t know how, but my parents know where I am. I don’t …. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how they found me. Shit.” 

“…. Want to know what happened when my parents found me?”

“…What?”

“Jack and Geoff killed them and dumped the bodies.” Michael said in a surprisingly calm tone. “They think I don’t know, but I’m not a fuckin’ idiot.” 

“Shit… How old were you?”

“Like six? Maybe? Hard to tell. Point is, we take no shit from abusive a-holes. If you don’t want to see them, then we’ll make sure you won’t.”

Jeremy took a deep breath. “Thanks Michael…. That helps.”

“Trust me, I get not wanting to see them. Are they in town already?”

“My Aunt says they’re travelling here tomorrow..”

Michael flashed him a wicked grin. “I’ll make sure they don’t even step a foot out the plane.”


	78. Unwelcome Visitors; Part Two

It was always hard to tell what to expect going into family meetings.

Sometimes it was Michael explaining how he broke both his arm and the arm of the jock who had been teasing Gavin.

Sometimes it was Ray giving a lecture about sexuality (or the lack there-of).

Today, the meeting was about Jeremy’s parents, which made Jeremy incredibly nervous. He fidgeted in his seat and avoided eye contact.

“What are there names?” Ryan asked, tying away on the keyboard which sat in his lap. 

“Craig and Annie.” Jeremy replied. 

“Dooley?”

“No, um… I made that up when I moved here. Legally changed my name as part of the emancipation.”

“So what’s their surname?”

“…. Rose.”

Gavin stifled a laugh. “Jeremy Rose.” 

Michael promptly elbowed Gavin in the ribs. Normally he would laugh along but he was taking the situation a lot more seriously than he normally would. 

“I’m so jealous.” Ray commented. “Ray Rose would be a hell of a name.” 

“I’ve found their plane booking.” Ryan interrupted, “First thing I can do is cancel their tickets remotely. I’ll set up a notification that’ll let me know every time they try to book again. That should give us at least a week to prepare.”

Jeremy let out a sigh of relief. 

“Do you know why they want to find you…?” Jack asked tentatively.

“I think…. they just like having someone to blame for all their problems.” Jeremy admitted quietly. “When I’m not there, they have to accept their own fault…” 

“That sucks.” Gavin gave him a sympathetic expression.

“You don’t know the half of it.” Jeremy shrugged. “I don’t really want to go into it all now though… if that’s okay.”

“You don’t have to tell us anything you don’t want to.” Jack assured him with a warm smile. 

“Thanks guys…”

“We got you kid.” Geoff nodded before clapping his hands together. “Since we have some time to prepare, the rest of you better get started on your chores while me and Jack make a battle plan.”

The boys groaned in unison and one by one left Geoff’s office. 

Geoff caught Jeremy just as everyone else had left the room. “Hey, uh… just so you know, we changed all the boys names to Ramsey when they were kids. Just so they would look legally adopted. If you want to change your name to Ramsey too, I wouldn’t mind.” 

Jeremy was shocked, he blinked back surprised tears. “Um, I’ll have to think about it…”

Geoff pulled him into a hug. “Offer’s always open buddy, you’re one of us.”


End file.
